


just give me one look

by sheets_theghost



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Drinking, Dub-con elements, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, Jealousy, Light Bondage, M/M, Mutual Pining, Office Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Porn With Plot, alcohol mention, and i mean very light, but for now they're ignoring their feelings, jack also drives for a second after he drank but he didn't drink much so?, jack has a past™, probably way more guilt than there needs to be, rhack is endgame, rhys & jack make a veeery tiny 50 shades of grey reference, rhys isn't really into the oc he's just distracting himself, vaughn being a good bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-09-25 22:20:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 39,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9848942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheets_theghost/pseuds/sheets_theghost
Summary: Rhys chalks it up to having a rough work week. Or it may just be that he hasn't gotten laid in a while. Either way, there's really no exact excuse or explanation for how Rhys has currently found himself splayed about on a desk underneath his boss.or the one where rhys and jack are really dumb and ignore their feelings for each other





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi hey hello um idk what this is i had an idea and it wouldn't leave me alone
> 
> sooo yeah this happened idk what else to say about it just that the overall feel of the fic is basically the song i don't wanna live forever by zayn & taylor swift lmao keep that in mind i guess ??
> 
> i'm going to try to update this when i can. before i upload a chapter, i'm gonna make sure the next chapter is always written, that way i don't leave u guys hangin :P
> 
> pls be gentle i usually don't write chaptered fics
> 
> (this is unbeta-d so i'm sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes or oocness!)

Rhys chalks it up to having a rough work week. Or it may just be that he hasn't gotten laid in a while. Either way, there's really no exact excuse or explanation for how Rhys has currently found himself splayed about on a desk underneath his boss. He doesn't remember who came onto whom first, Rhys is finding it kind of difficult to think about the fact now when Jack keeps railing into him.

There are papers littered all around the surrounding floor, just like most of the layers of their work clothes strewn about the office. Rhys can't find it in him to care because Jack is kissing him again, all tongue and teeth and suffocating passion. He's on the very verge of orgasm, the sounds of his and Jack's panting voices reverberating around the room, the desk creaking at every sharp movement. (Rhys thanks everything that is holy that Jack's office is soundproof.)

Rhys breaks their kiss after a moment, throwing his head back when Jack hits his prostate just right. His skull makes a thick thudding sound when it hits the desk, but he can barely register the pain when Jack moves a hand to envelop Rhys's leaking cock in one large hand. Rhys whines out Jack's name with a moan, trying to move back against Jack's thrusting hips the best he can in this position, his fingers clinging to the edge of the desk like it's his only lifeline. His legs are locked tight around his superior's back, and his heels dig into Jack's spine in a silent request to move quicker, harder.

Rhys lets out a shout when Jack pivots his hips impossibly faster and Rhys knows the older man must be just as close as he is. Jack is sucking dark bruises into the side of Rhys's neck that will no doubt prove difficult to cover up, especially the bite he leaves under Rhys's jawline when Jack suddenly tenses and Rhys can feel him coming. He groans both at the feeling and when Jack starts stroking him faster in order to get him off.

"C'mon, kitten– come for me."

And that's what ultimately does him in. Rhys lets out a chorus of _'yes'_ s along with a sound akin to Jack's name. Then his body is convulsing in violent shudders as he comes over Jack's hand, toes curling in absolute pleasure.

After he eventually stops trembling, Rhys lies back on the desk and closes his eyes, trying his best to calm his breathing as Jack does the same. Neither of them move from their positions, and then Jack subsequently collapses against Rhys's body on the desk. 

When Rhys finally catches his breath, his boss is nosing along the crook of his neck and placing lingering kisses in his wake. Rhys lets out one last sighing breath, promptly removing his fingers from where they'd curled around the edge of the desk. Jack will probably berate him later for the shallow etchings embedded in the glossy wood from where his nails had dug and scratched into it.

Rhys's mind is still fairly blown by the time Jack pulls away from his body, and he remains lying on top of the desk until Jack tosses some napkins at Rhys to clean himself up with. He goes about the task slowly, and even dares to sit back and watch as Jack searches for the rest of his clothing and pulls on what was left. Instead of saying something snarky about Rhys still lazing about, Jack gathers the remainder of the younger man's clothes and hands them over to Rhys.

Rhys can't help but feel the atmosphere in the office is rather uncomfortable now, the both of them quiet as Rhys hops down off his boss's desk to redress himself. He wants to break the silence, but what would he even say? _"Hey that was really great, let's never talk about it ever again"_? Rhys had never thought he would by any chance end up sleeping with his boss, that's something you only hear about people doing. Rhys wasn't prepared for the overwhelming awkwardness that came with it.

Rhys can't call to mind the last time he'd actually been fucked properly, and even though they had been half-dressed and the whole ordeal had been hasty from the beginning, Rhys feels as if nothing in the past could compare to how his superior had fucked him. But once again, stressful work pace, Rhys's bout of involuntary celibacy—it may just boil down to those defaults in the end. The tension had to be relieved, and this was Rhys's closest option, he's sure.

Rhys knows any conversation between them now would be stilted at best, so he doesn't try to alleviate the thick unpleasant feeling in the room. Instead, he settles for mumbling, "Well, I uh– I better get back to work," and doesn't wait for Jack's response before Rhys is walking out of the office. He tries his best to not imagine the walk back to his own office as a walk of shame.

One thing is for sure, though. Vaughn is _never_ going to believe this story.

  


It seems sex wasn't the best solution to Rhys's work-related stress in the end (if that was even the real problem in the first place). His workload, of course, hadn't decreased from the time he went in Jack's office and the time he walked back out to his own. In fact, more paperwork had been dropped on his desk in his absence. Rhys groans in resignation.

Roughly an hour later, Rhys finds himself half-assed paying attention to a file he was supposed to be revising, when he gets an email from Vaughn. Rhys hadn't realized he had completely missed his lunch break when he reads over Vaughn's email. Apparently he and Yvette had been waiting, but Rhys never showed. 

(Rhys suddenly remembered why he had even been in Jack's office in the first place; he'd gone to ask if he could take an early lunch.)

Rhys sends Vaughn his apologies with some shit excuse about getting drowned in paperwork and losing track of time. He wasn't exactly ready to relay the story of how he'd gotten thoroughly fucked by their boss in his office while Rhys was supposed to be meeting his friends for lunch.

Vaughn accepts the excuse, however, totally understanding how it could happen. The three of them always go out for lunch together every other day, anyway, so one skipped session wasn't going to hurt anything. Rhys apologizes again and promises to drop by his station later, then attempts to get back to work. He wasn't hungry anyway, his stomach is too busy tying itself in knots.

Rhys doesn't know why he has so much anxiety about what happened earlier. It was a one-time thing, would probably never happen again. He had never even thought about his boss like that before, but now it's all he can ponder about. Maybe he had always subconsciously thought of Jack in that way, because there was no way he noticed before today how attractive Rhys actually found his superior. It was rather jarring. Either way, Rhys promises himself he won't let it happen again or ruin his work-relationship with his boss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmu on tumblr @sheets-theghost if u really wanna


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah okay idk where this chapter came from i was just kind of winging it from start to finish ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> i apologize for all the dang italicizing, i like to do that

It happens again almost two weeks later. Rhys _does_ have an excuse this time. He'd been endlessly dwelling on what happened between Jack and him the two weeks prior, it was _all_ he could think about whether he wanted to or not. And ever since then, Jack and he have either been flirting nonstop, or ignoring each other to the best of their abilities. There was no in between. But it ultimately proved difficult to ignore your boss when he was, well, your boss.

Rhys had been putting off going back to Jack's office for any reason, but today, he received some papers that Jack had to sign as soon as possible. And Rhys wasn't going to fuck up important paperwork just because he and his boss had had some sort of fling. So Rhys simply had to get over himself, and he brought the documents to Jack in his office. And that's how Rhys ended up on his back and his legs spread on Jack's lounge.

Rhys obviously had never intended for this to happen again. He didn't want to be _that guy_ —his coworkers already thought Jack played favorites when it came to Rhys. Rhys just thought he was a diligent worker, dedicated to his job, but maybe what his boss had really wanted was to get in his pants. Rhys shakes that thought from his head—he didn't think there was anything to support that assumption.

Getting that paperwork signed is the least of his concerns, especially when he has Jack whispering such filthy things in his ear as he fucks into him. Rhys can't control the sounds coming out of his mouth, not that Jack would want him to stifle the moans and whimpers anyway. His nails are alternating between clinging to the fabric of the lounge and scratching down his boss's back, and Rhys already knows Jack's skin is going to be marked up for the next few subsequent days.

Jack lets out a colorful string of expletives, bucking into Rhys harder, eliciting a sound akin to a yelp from the younger man. Jack's hands are gripping at his hips, fingers digging in hard enough that Rhys knows he'll have bruises from them. Jack is using his hold on Rhys to his advantage, pulling him back to meet every thrust of his hips.

"Oh god, please," Rhys isn't sure what he's begging for other than _more_ , but Jack gives him just what he wants regardless. That being a hand around Rhys's cock, jerking him off as rough as Rhys can handle.

Jack lets out a breathy laugh, smirking, "Jack is just fine." And Rhys has to resist the intense urge to roll his eyes at that remark until Jack hits his prostate dead-on and Rhys rolls his eyes back in a completely different way. He's so close now, and only a few last thrusts from Jack is all he needs to come all over Jack's hand and his own chest. Jack doesn't last too much longer after that, and then they both stay quietly lying on the lounge until their breathing returns to normal.

The room doesn't feel as awkward as it had the first time, but maybe it's only because that had been the first time it happened, and neither really knew what to say about it. They don't say anything about it this time either, though, just go about cleaning up and getting redressed in their work clothes, making sure they look presentable. Jack signs those important papers Rhys had come here for originally, and then Rhys silently leaves his office to go drop the paperwork off with whoever needed to handle it.

It's not until Rhys is back in the privacy of his own office that he finally lets out an aggravated sigh. He can't believe he'd let himself succumb to Jack like that again. He'd promised himself he wouldn't. Maybe they won't ignore each other this time, though. They're adults, they can handle this like adults and not avoid one another like children. Right?

Rhys finally decides to tell Vaughn about what happened with Jack ( _"twice?!"_ ) on their walk back to the office building after lunch. Rhys was wrong when he'd thought Vaughn wouldn't actually believe him, figured he wouldn't believe it just like Rhys couldn't. He takes it in stride though, but definitely doesn't ask for details or pry about it anymore once they're back on their floor.

They go their separate ways, Rhys back to his office, Vaughn to his little cubicle. Rhys leans back against the door after he shuts it, exhausted, and glances around his office like maybe he could find something, anything that could fully take his mind off of his boss. He doesn't want to think about it, doesn't want to ponder on if it would happen _again_ —if Jack would ever come to him, or if Rhys would willingly go to him instead, work intentions aside. All of this is giving him a migraine just trying to imagine it. 

  


Rhys doesn't want to say he's sulking, but he kind of is. Jack hasn't talked to him about anything other than work-related issues since their last encounter. He even came by Rhys's office one day, and Rhys wanted to push down the hope that his boss was here for _that_. But Jack had just handed him some files, made a few ridiculous orders, and left. Rhys is concerned that he has actually started to want Jack to come to him for sex. (And Rhys can't tally that up as not getting laid recently.)

He voices these concerns to Vaughn, who isn't much help. Just says that whole "once is chance, twice is coincidence" shtick, which Rhys stops before he gets to three. He considers going to Yvette, but he decides no more people need to know about this than absolutely necessary. Plus, she'd probably accidentally tell others and then _someone_ would most likely get fired, whether it be Jack or himself. (Was sleeping with your boss still against company rules?)

Rhys is so busy consuming himself with thoughts of Jack, it comes as no surprise to him when he starts having dreams about his superior. They had started out strictly sexual, but as the days progressed, they've come to be more domestic in variety and it was sort of weirding him out. Rhys decides it's probably just stress, or just the fact that Jack was the last person he'd slept with. Maybe Rhys needed to go out more, find a stranger at a bar, anything.

He doesn't do any of that because, for the next week, work is hectic for everyone as Hyperion closes a major deal with one of their smaller rivals. The workload is insane and Rhys ends up taking a lot of files home to review in his spare time. It does take Rhys by surprise, though, when Jack shows up at his front door after work hours, bearing a few important documents he says he wants to go over with Rhys.

Jack has never been to Rhys's apartment before (they've never even seen each other outside of a work setting), and Rhys is a little self-conscious about his not-so-tidy living space when he reluctantly invites Jack inside. He offers his boss a seat on his couch, where he already has so much paperwork strewn about his coffee table. 

Granted, they do talk about a few contract-related issues, then Jack kisses him. Rhys ends up riding Jack on his creaky couch and all he can think is "third time is a pattern".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eh sorry this chapter was kinda short, i'm not used to writing long chapters lol i'll try harder in the future :P


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm just gonna go ahead and warn for dub-con on vaughn's behalf later on, so idk just be aware of that i guess. it's kinda consensual but it's never actually stated, and he's really only doing it bc he's a ridiculously good friend.

"Look, all I'm saying is nothing good can come of this, bro."

Vaughn has the best intentions, he really does, and Rhys knows that. He's just trying to be a good friend to Rhys while he's having some sort of low-key crisis. But he's not exactly helping in any feasible way. He basically told Rhys to put an end to whatever it was Jack and he were doing, or it'll end up disastrous for the both of them. And Vaughn is absolutely right—it could ruin their work relationship if things got too weird.

The issue is Rhys's unsettlingly realistic dreams of his boss have been getting even worse lately (like they hadn't been bad before now), and it's getting difficult for Rhys to even consider not seeing Jack, whether it be intimately or with the hope of _something more_. Rhys knows deep down that "something more" is unachievable. Jack is his boss, nothing more, will never be more. But that doesn't stop Rhys from imagining what that would be like.

Like waking up next to him every morning, making meals together, coming to work together even. Rhys has to physically shake his head so those thoughts will go away. All of this is driving him insane. He can't decide if he actually likes his boss or just likes fucking him.

Rhys lets his barely eaten sandwich flop back down on his plate. He's definitely not hungry anymore.

  


Rhys is trying to balance ignoring Jack and doing his work efficiently. His mind keeps coming back to "three is a pattern", but he can't decide what that actually means for him. Is there some sort of underlying reason why Jack and he started hooking up, or is it really as simple as them needing to get laid and it's convenient?

He doesn't find an answer by the time the weekend comes around.

He invites Vaughn over for a movie night to try and get Jack out of his head for at least a moment. It works for the most part. Vaughn and he binge watched Stranger Things, then somehow ended up making out on Rhys's couch. Rhys blames himself on that one; he was willing to do practically anything to get his mind off his boss, including kiss his best friend.

He has the sinking feeling that Vaughn is doing this out of pity, because Rhys has been so stressed about Jack, and Vaughn is _such_ a good friend. Then he feels that overwhelming guilt that he's using his best friend as a distraction. Vaughn doesn't complain however, lets Rhys undress him and he responds in kind. Rhys feels ridiculously insatiable, lets Vaughn fuck him into the couch he'd screwed his boss on.

Afterwards, Vaughn takes a shower and that leaves Rhys alone with his thoughts in the living room. He lets himself believe he's messing everything up, because he most likely is, but no one will tell him. He's no less confused about Jack than before.

  


Monday is a drag. Vaughn and he haven't exactly talked about what happened over the weekend, but Vaughn gave him a sympathetic smile when Rhys tried to apologize. He'd said, "anything I can do to help." Rhys doesn't think he deserves his friendship even in the slightest.

He doesn't see Jack at all, the man in an assortment of meetings all day. Rhys figures he'll be able to actually get some work done, especially when he has to take paperwork to Jack's office and the older man isn't there.

Tuesday isn't any different, nor Wednesday. When Rhys goes to drop off some forms in Jack's office on Thursday, he's fairly surprised to find his boss sitting at his desk like usual.

"Hey, cupcake," Jack turns away from his computer to flash him a grin, "miss me?"

Rhys doesn't respond, instead silently handing over the papers to Jack. Jack doesn't look at them, simply slaps them down on top of all the other scattered papers and moves around in front of the desk to where Rhys is standing. He leans back against the surface and pulls on Rhys's tie until he's in Jack's space, and then Jack kisses him.

But that's all that happens. Jack kisses him only once, then releases Rhys's tie and goes back to sit in his chair. Rhys stands there dumbfounded for a moment, his face flushed so red he feels like it's going to explode from all the blood rushing to it. Jack snorts in amusement, then turns back to face his computer screen. Rhys is efficiently stunned into silence, and leaves Jack's office as quickly as his feet can take him (without running of course—he doesn't want to make a scene.)

He keeps thinking about the kiss, even after he clocks out and goes home.

  


Friday, Rhys decides to indulge himself and gets coffee before work. He ends up getting an extra in case he can work up the courage to bring it to Jack. He doesn't, gives it to Vaughn instead when he runs into him in the break room. Vaughn repays him by giving Rhys his other poptart from the pack.

Jack drops by his office not too long after Rhys fires up his computer and starts his daily process of getting to work. His boss takes Rhys's paper coffee cup off the desk and takes a sip without a word, then continues to criticize Rhys's taste in coffee.

"Maybe that's what you get for drinking other people's coffee," Rhys tells him, a beguiling smirk tugging at his lips only for a second before Jack leans across his desk and kisses it off him. Then he gives Rhys some files and leaves.

He keeps surprising Rhys like that. Kissing him only once, then getting back to work. Rhys doesn't know what Jack is trying to do. Is he courting Rhys in his own weird way? Rhys can't figure it out. He wants to ask Vaughn what he thinks, but Vaughn would probably just wonder why Rhys hasn't tried to break things off with Jack. (Rhys doesn't know why he hasn't done it either.)

Rhys gathers as much courage as he can to go to Jack's office after that. He doesn't give any greeting to his boss when he walks in, just fumingly asks if Jack wanted to talk about whatever the hell this was. Jack doesn't give him a straight answer, of course, because that would be too easy. 

Rhys ends up indignantly walking out of his office and Jack doesn't stop him.

  


Rhys spends the weekend brooding. If Jack only wanted him for sex, that would be fine, Rhys is okay with that. But Jack keeps kissing him, and that is messing with Rhys's head. And if Jack wanted more than sex, then he's certainly dancing around the subject. Rhys feels like it should be that simple—either Jack wants more or he doesn't. But he's not giving Rhys anything to go on.

Rhys guiltily allows himself text Vaughn and ask if he wants to stay the night. Vaughn is there in no time at all, bearing alcohol. Did Rhys ever mention how great of a friend Vaughn is?

They get relatively drunk playing Call of Duty, then Rhys drags his friend back to his room. Rhys is just so unbelievably frustrated at Jack, and he's thankful that Vaughn lets him take it out on him through sex.

Rhys simultaneously feels better and not the next morning. The hangover is a good distraction from all his bitter anger towards Jack, but Rhys feels so immoral when Vaughn cooks the two of them breakfast. He should not be dragging his best friend into this mess. Rhys could stand to ruin his work relationship with Jack, but he would never let himself live it down if he fucked up his friendship with Vaughn.

Even if Vaughn has said before that he's okay with it, Rhys makes a silent vow to himself that he'll stop going to Vaughn for "distractions".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah, that happened. feel free to yell at me on tumblr
> 
> i would like to take this moment to say that i am literally winging all of this xD i have main things i want to happen, but as for chapter content, i have no idea what i'm doing lmao so uh thanks all u guys that like what i'm doing so far (':


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really hope u guys love this chapter as much as i do :P  
> also, i tried to make it longer than the last ones, and kind of succeeded i guess?

Rhys is running so late. It's Monday, he can't start his week like this.

He'd had the best sleep he's gotten in the past month last night, and he admits to hitting the snooze button more than enough times. And where would he be without coffee to get him through his day, so of course he'd had to stop and get some sugary caffeinated goodness on his way in to work.

The coffee proves pointless once he's gotten to the office building and he rushes out of the elevator when it reaches his floor and runs right into someone. Rhys is too busy scolding himself for being in such a hurry and spilling his coffee all over this poor, innocent person to even see who it is.

"Oh my god. I am so so _so_ sorry, holy shit." Rhys is pulling napkins out of his bag to give the other person, who gladly accepts them. They let out a short sigh, then laughs at Rhys's attempts to help clean up the coffee.

"It's fine," the guy says, obviously amused for whatever reason, "it happens."

The other man is smiling when Rhys meets his gaze and, wow, Rhys has to admit that he's kind of cute. His wavy blonde hair comes down to his jaw, his amber-colored eyes watching Rhys scramble to help. Rhys internally berates himself because he just spilled coffee on the dude, this was no opportune time to gauge how cute Rhys thought he was.

"I really am so sorry. I was in a huge rush and I–"

"It's okay, really," the guy grins wider, moving to toss the dirty napkins in a nearby trashcan, then holds his hand out for Rhys to shake. "I'm Jonas, by the way."

Oh.

"Uh– Rhys, I'm Rhys," he takes Jonas's hand and shakes it, then lets his hand fall back to his side. Jonas is still smiling at him, and Rhys is in trouble because this guy is so cute and Rhys is so flustered. Rhys isn't sure if he's embarrassed because he spilled coffee on someone, or if it's because he spilled coffee on someone that he finds super attractive.

"I have to get back to work, but let me buy you a replacement coffee sometime," Jonas gives him a lop-sided smirk and an arched eyebrow.

_Oh._

Rhys is too embarrassed to say anything in response, but Jonas takes his flushed face and gaping mouth as an affirmative answer. He pulls out a small pad of paper and scribbles something down before slipping it into Rhys's hand. It's Jonas's phone number, with the words " _txt or call :)_ " scrawled below it. 

Jonas then makes his way onto the elevator, waving at Rhys with a radiant smile. "I'll see you around." 

Rhys just lifts up his hand that's loosely curled around the paper up in goodbye, still too rattled to say anything. Then he regains his composure once the elevator doors close and abruptly remembers that he's going to be _so_ late, promptly bolting to his office to clock in.

It's not until later that Rhys is hit with the sudden realization that he hasn't thought about Jack at all. Or, rather, Jonas has been on his mind since their encounter. Rhys would be the last to admit that he has only ill intentions at first, the idea of using Jonas as a distraction from Jack very tempting. And then Rhys is angry with himself because why should he have to distract himself from Jack? Why couldn't he simply get over him and move the hell on like a normal person?

He ultimately decides that the guy is cute and nice, plus he's obviously into Rhys, so why not give him a chance?

Rhys tells Vaughn about his incident with Jonas over tacos in the break room. Vaughn interjects the retelling of his story after a moment, asking, "Jonas from IT?"

Rhys just shrugs, taking a bite of his taco. He hadn't bothered to ask Jonas if he worked in the building, let alone if he worked for Hyperion. Vaughn tells him he vaguely knows Jonas, says that he's a good guy and that Rhys should go for it.

"It'd be good for you, man," Vaughn gives him an affectionate smile and Rhys tries to return the favor while chowing down on taco fillings. He definitely appreciates Vaughn's vote of confidence, including his eagerness towards the idea of Rhys pursuing Jonas. Maybe this is exactly what Rhys needs, not just a distraction from Jack, but a possible new start in.. Rhys doesn't want to say "romance", but that might as well be what he's looking for in the end.

Rhys decides to give it a shot and texts Jonas on his way back to his office from the break room.

  


They decide to go out for lunch Thursday and Rhys is definitely looking forward to it. He hasn't really talked to Jack about anything other than work ever since Rhys had confronted him, and Rhys is oddly okay with that. If Jack wanted to stubbornly pass up the opportunity to be with Rhys, then so be it. Rhys obviously has other people interested; it would prove to be a waste of time trying to chase after Jack.

On Thursday, Jonas meets up with Rhys in the lobby and together, they walk to a little Mediterranean place a couple blocks down. Rhys doesn't think he's ever eaten Mediterranean food before, so he encourages Jonas to order something for him instead of trying to decipher the menu himself. Jonas gets lamb gyros for the both of them, and they sit down at a two-seater table near the window.

They talk about so many different things over lunch that Rhys can't remember what all was discussed. But he definitely feels the happiest he's felt in a while when he gets back to his office. He isn't stressed about what to do with his boss for the first time this month. But that's the dangerous thing—Rhys doesn't want to be using Jonas just as a preoccupation. He's already dragged Vaughn into this shit, he doesn't need to ensnare any more innocent people into this ridiculous _thing_.

Maybe Rhys shouldn't be trying to date if he's so decidedly hung up on Jack. And then he gets mad because there's nothing to be hung up on. His boss is an asshole who can't make up his mind and pursuing that would be exhausting. Rhys is absolutely determined to not fall in love with his boss (if that's truly what this even was.)

With that, Rhys makes up his mind and decides to go out on a real date with Jonas the coming weekend.

  


The date idea doesn't come to fruition when Jonas tells him he has to work over the weekend. Which is fine—Rhys can find something to occupy himself with until Monday. He invites Vaughn over with the promise that they are strictly watching movies, nothing else. And that's exactly what happens. Rhys isn't sure if he should count that as an accomplishment or righting his wrongs or whatever, but he feels good about it.

The coming week goes by without a hitch. Jack is apparently sticking with his method of ignoring Rhys, and Rhys is certainly not going out of his way to see Jack, whether it be to apologize for his outburst, or for minor work things he could handle on his own. (If Rhys really needed to see Jack for important work-related issues, he would be able to get over himself and do it.)

Then Rhys runs into Jack at the grocery store on Saturday, which is probably one of the only places Rhys would never think he'd see his boss. Rhys has never seen Jack outside of work anywhere, not counting that one time Jack showed up at his apartment. It's weird, it's such a domestic thing to catch Jack doing. Rhys feels like Jack would be the type of person to have people grocery shop for him. But here he is in the cereal aisle, purposely ignoring the fact that Rhys is there.

Rhys internally debates whether he wants to try and talk to Jack or not. He eventually decides to be the adult he claims to be and awkwardly walks up to his boss.

"Hi, Jack."

Jack turns to face him, mock astonishment showing on his face, like he hadn't been avoiding Rhys that whole time (not to mention for the last two weeks.) "Rhysie, hey! What a surprise, wow."

Conversation is..forced, to say the least. But eventually Jack tells him that his daughter (Rhys didn't know he even _had_ a daughter) bailed on their dinner plans tonight and despite Rhys's better judgement, he agrees to come when Jack invites him over. 

Rhys ultimately has enough time to finish his grocery shopping, bring it all home and put it up, shower, and promptly begin freaking himself out about the fact that soon, he'll be at Jack's actual house. Where he lives. That's weirder than seeing him at the grocery store. 

Rhys stresses about what he should wear, if dinner will be able to go normally or if it will be so irredeemably awkward that Rhys will have to make up an excuse to leave. Or, what if Jack just decides to forget dinner and fuck Rhys instead? It's a moderate possibility, he thinks. With all the broken promises he's made to himself lately, what's one more to add to the list he wonders, when he swears he won't let anything happen while he's at Jack's house other than dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay hi yeah, i just wanna check and make sure you guys don't think i'm rushing things? i did try to span things over about a month and a half, so idk lmao. just uh comment or whatever and let me know if i should try to slow stuff down a little (:


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing dinners is not my forte but i did it anyway, despite my better judgement ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> i literally looked up floor plans for houses to figure out how i wanted jack's house to be laid out lmao i'm so lame
> 
> i used the word awkward so many times fml

Jack's house is ultimately more suburban than Rhys had imagined. He's not sure exactly what he was picturing, but with Jack's personal taste, Rhys was at least expecting something flashy. But it's relatively normal—two stories, red brick exterior, arched doorway, fenced-in yard. Suburban.

Rhys is still sitting out in his car in Jack's driveway, trying his best to gather what little courage he has to go inside. Rhys already knows the entire evening is going to be one awkward moment after the other. Maybe he can just tell Jack that he can't make it—he thinks he's sick, a family member is in the hospital, _something_. Rhys sighs. That would be a cowardly way out. He's an adult, Jack is an adult—they can brave having dinner together. Just the two of them. They'll be fine.

With his mind made up, Rhys steps out of his car and straightens out his plaid button-up. He hopes Jack wasn't expecting Rhys to wear something nicer, but he'd also seen Rhys in sweatpants at the store earlier that day, so Rhys guesses anything is better than that.

Ringing the doorbell is oddly weird, like maybe he could just text Jack and tell him he was here as an alternative. (Except the fact that Rhys doesn't think he even has Jack's number.) He waits anxiously in front of the door, twiddling his thumbs like that might make Jack hurry and open the door already. And then Rhys is so busy turned around awkwardly looking at his surroundings, it startles him slightly when Jack finally opens the door.

His boss looks endearingly casual standing in front of him—the top few buttons of his shirt undone, hem untucked from his dark jeans. Rhys is trying to pretend he doesn't know what Jack looks like underneath those clothes.

"Well, dont you look good," is Jack's greeting, the grin on his face playful, comforting on a relatively surreal level. "Come on in, cupcake."

Jack moves aside, opening the door wider and making a vague gesture for Rhys to enter the house. He's glad Jack misses the way his cheeks heat up at the compliment. 

Jack's house is even more normal looking on the inside, just as lived-in seeming as Rhys's apartment. Jack leads him down a thin foyer, stairs to Rhys's immediate left and an opening in front of them into what he assumes is the living room from the glances he gets when they pass by. He follows Jack through the wide doorway on their right, which turns out to be the dining room, and continues on into the kitchen.

Jack has only a few things still cooking on the stove, but Rhys had seen the majority of dinner on the dining room table. Jack tells Rhys to take a seat, and he does so, sliding into a barstool at the island. Jack makes his way over to the stove, to finish up whatever he has cooking.

Rhys has no idea what to say. He's probably the only one of the two that feels awkward, like Rhys is the only one that remembers they'd been ignoring each other for the past two weeks. Maybe this was Jack's way of apologizing? (Rhys doesn't think Jack is the kind of man to apologize for anything, though.)

"I made burgers," Jack says, looking back at Rhys from where he's standing in front of the stove, "hope that's cool."

"Uh– yeah, that's fine." Rhys flashes him a smile that he doesn't feel is very sincere, but Jack accepts it, nodding and turning back to the pot on the stove.

Rhys anxiously taps his fingers on the smooth granite countertop, glancing around the kitchen. There are sliding glass doors that are open, leading out onto a deck where Rhys can see the grill cooking away. Like he read Rhys's mind, Jack moves away from the stove and heads out the open doors to check on the grill.

"So uh," Rhys trails off, hoping Jack can't actually hear him speaking from inside, "I didn't know you had a daughter..."

Jack walks back inside then, plate of burgers balanced in one hand, closing the sliding door with his other. "Yeah, she lives with her mother."

He says it so casual, Rhys isn't exactly sure how to respond.

"Oh, yeah gotcha. That's, uh.." He trails off again, looking down at his jittery fingers still tapping away on the counter. He doesn't want to say something stupid, but he probably already has.

"It's not a touchy subject, kiddo. You don't gotta be weird about it." Jack laughs, trying to alleviate some of the tension (keyword: _trying_ ) as he walks to set the plate of burgers down in the dining room.

"Right! Yeah duh, 'cause that'd be.. right." Rhys can feel how hot his face is becoming in embarrassment as he hops down off the stool and waits for Jack to finish bringing the rest of the food from the stove to the dining table. Maybe Rhys is the only one being weird. Jack seems to be contributing to the conversation just fine.

Rhys hears Jack let out a soft chuckle from the next room. "Are you always this awkward?"

"Um," Rhys pauses, like it's something he actually has to think about, has to really supply with an answer, "probably maybe? I don't know."

Jack shakes his head in amusement, pulling a chair out for Rhys and taking the seat across from it. Rhys gives him a flustered smile, and sits down, hoping he won't say anything else dumb.

They eat in comfortable silence, breaking the quiet every now and then to small-talk about work and Rhys compliments Jack's cooking skills a few times. The atmosphere isn't exactly tense (at least, maybe for Jack) but Rhys can certainly feel the underlying issue of " _we fucked but then something changed and now everything is awkward_ ".

Rhys wants to apologize for confronting Jack that day. It feels like it happened so long ago (two weeks ago, his mind supplies him.) But then Rhys doesn't really want to apologize because Jack obviously knew what he'd been doing, but didn't have enough nerve to outright tell Rhys what he wanted. Rhys wants so badly to fix things, though. Whatever twisted thing it was that they'd had.

No remorseful atonements are exchanged, however, just idle chatting.

Rhys helps clear the table when they've finished, bringing the dishes to the kitchen and assists with washing them off and putting them in the dishwasher. And then Jack corners him against the counter, his body exceptionally close to Rhys's own. He feels like a deer in the headlights, but he won't lie to himself and say he didn't want this to happen in someway.

Jack doesn't kiss him at first like Rhys thought he would, just gives him this look that Rhys can't decipher at all. But then Rhys simply can't take anymore of it and surges forward to press their mouths together. Jack lets their lips lock only for a moment before pulling away and Rhys thinks he'll probably say something along the lines of " _he can't do this_ ", but those words don't come.

Rhys stands there, leaning back against the counter, the edge of it digging into his back. He's moderately embarrassed, if he's being honest. Instead of looking at Jack, Rhys looks down at the tiled flooring, then decidedly shoves away from the counter and attempts to dart past Jack. The older man catches his wrist just as Rhys moves almost out of reach.

"Jack, I–"

God, he really doesn't want to cry because what reason is there to? But Rhys can feel his face getting unbearably hot anyway, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He wrenches his arm from his boss' grasp, but he doesn't move to go anywhere, can't bring himself to. He lets out a shuddering breath, willing himself to not shed any tears. Not in front of Jack.

He swallows thickly, still facing away from Jack. "I should go."

"Rhys," Jack starts, but sighs and they lapse into uncomfortable silence. It takes a minute for Rhys to be able to walk away from Jack, but he does eventually when obviously neither of them are going to say anything else. 

"I– I'll see you at work." Then Rhys makes his way out of Jack's charmingly suburban home and gets in his car. He's half-hoping Jack will chase after him, but Rhys knows now Jack doesn't just chase after people. And Rhys doesn't know why he's so damn frustrated with all of this. (He does know why, deep down, but he won't admit it to himself.)

He sits in the perfect quiet of his car for a moment before turning the key and firing the engine up. It takes him another moment to finally bring himself to back out of Jack's driveway and leave the neighborhood. Rhys knew joining Jack for dinner would be afflictive, but if he'd known it would end like this, he would've never even agreed to come in the first place.

The drive home is bleary, but Rhys makes it back in one piece regardless. He uncertainly considers texting Vaughn, or even Jonas, but figures that either of those options would make him feel worse. He just needs some space to think about things. To think about why he lets Jack rile him up like this.

He changes back into some sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt which he has no clue of its origins, and settles down on his couch to watch some X-Files. He ends up falling asleep halfway through the first episode.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> damn bet u guys weren't expecting dinner to come with waterworks because i sure fucking wasn't like ?? i continue to absolutely wing this shit i have no idea what's happening
> 
> also, i'm sorry the chapter was kinda short but i gave y'all tears so i meeeean


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize in advance that this chapter is kind of short, i took a little break in between writing it to evaluate what the fuck i was even doing lmao so i didn't get as much written as i wanted
> 
> also i never realized until now that i hadn't mentioned whether rhys had his cybernetic arm or not, so i'm just gonna go ahead and say no, he just has his normal noodle arms lol. and i'm just gonna say both his eyes are brown to make my life easier xD

Rhys already knows he won't want to go to work on Monday. He lies in bed the night before and considers calling in sick in the morning, but he's sure Jack would immediately catch on to that, and Rhys doesn't want Jack showing up at his apartment and making him come to work. (Rhys knows the man would definitely do that, if needed.) That doesn't stop him from sleeping in as much as he can Monday morning before he absolutely has to get ready.

He doesn't have time to stop for coffee, but he reluctantly gets over it—it's his own fault anyway—and he trudges on into the office building when he gets there, vaguely waving at security in the lobby before heading for the elevators. He luckily doesn't run into anybody he knows, making a straight beeline for his office when the elevator stops on his floor. He hopes if he keeps his office door shut all day, people might think he's extremely busy.

There's a soft knock at his door not too long after he's started up his computer. He knew someone would eventually come to bother him, but he had hoped he would have at least a moment to himself before someone came barking orders at him. Rhys sighs, telling whoever it was to come in, and is rather surprised to see Jonas. 

Rhys promptly remembers that, yep, while he was _totally not_ crying over Jack all weekend, Jonas was a person that existed and Rhys interacted with and was very moderately attracted to. He feels bad that he hadn't talked to Jonas over the weekend, especially since the man had had to work while Rhys was having a ridiculous pseudo-date with his indecisive boss. 

Jonas strides over to his desk, bearing two paper coffee cups and that radiant smile of his, and sets one cup down in front of Rhys on the desk.

"I wasn't sure what you liked, but it's toffee-flavored."

Rhys smiles and he tries very hard to make it seem sincere because the coffee is such a nice gesture (even if Rhys doesn't exactly like toffee), but it doesn't meet his eyes. "Thank you."

Jonas proceeds to tilt his head at him, like he's some sort of confused puppy, and furrows his eyebrows. "Is something wrong?"

Fuck.

"No! No, I– it's just been a Monday." Great, now he's lying to potential boyfriends.

That obviously doesn't seem to alleviate any of Jonas's worry. The man sets his coffee cup down on the outer edge of the desk, rounding it to where Rhys is sitting. Rhys feels his whole face flush when Jonas presses a light kiss against his temple. Rhys had definitely not expected that.

"Don't stress too hard," Jonas tells him, grinning again, then he grabs his coffee cup and heads toward the door. He slips out of Rhys's office without another word, closing the door behind him, and Rhys is kind of stunned into silence. Rhys thinks he already didn't deserve anything Jonas had to offer him, and they'd only been on one lunch date.

He stares at his coffee cup for way longer than is actually necessary, like he was hoping that maybe it could give him all the answers he so desperately needed. It does not do that at all in the end, being the simple cup of coffee that it is, and he finally takes a sip of it after a few moments. It's good, for coffee that probably came from the break room, and despite that he didn't really like toffee-flavored anything that much to begin with.

Rhys decidedly, yet reluctantly, gets started on his work before anybody can come yelling at him to get with the program already. No need to neglect his workload just because he can't figure out his personal shit.

 

The week goes by rather uneventfully. Rhys hasn't talked to Jack at all, aside from strictly work-related topics. He's adult enough to set aside his problems and directly talk to his boss, even after almost crying in front of him on Saturday. Rhys tallies that up as a victory, really. No one can ever say that Rhys wasn't able to do his job efficiently regardless of any personal afflictions he may possess.

Jonas brings him coffee again on Thursday when Rhys regretfully cancels their lunch date to stay in and do some extra work—he's still a little behind from his lull on Monday. Jonas says he understands completely though, and even sticks around to attempt and cheer Rhys up while he works. Rhys cannot put into words how much he appreciates it, and he has to make himself try to get over what happened the past weekend at Jack's house, because if he doesn't, he isn't going to get anywhere with Jonas emotionally. If Jack wasn't going to step up and seriously talk to Rhys, then Rhys will just have to move on.

(He feels as if he's given himself this pep-talk before.)

By the next day, Rhys has given the whole situation with Jack _and_ Jonas some major thought, and decides to give Yvette the answers she's been begging him for ("What's up with you and Lawrence?" and "Since when do you hang out with Jonas from IT?" being her main concerns.) She has apparently caught on to Rhys's distress lately and she's drawn her own crazy conclusions. So Rhys sends an email to both Yvette and Vaughn, and they jointly decide to go out for lunch on Saturday.

When the day comes, Rhys meets up with his friends at a burger joint downtown and catches Yvette up to speed with his recent actions as soon as they order. It was a little difficult getting her to wait on asking questions until after they ordered, but Rhys had managed to curb all her inquiries until he was ready.

"Okay, wait. So, you've been sleeping with Jack—"

" _Was_ sleeping with Jack, and only a few times!" Rhys feels like he really shouldn't be defending his behavior, but if Yvette was going to judge him, she should at least be knowledgeable of all the information.

"Whatever!" Yvette pauses her assault when the waiter brings their food, then she gets right back to pointing fingers at him. 

"You were sleeping with Jack, then slept with _Vaughn_ ," she gives Vaughn a keen look to which he just sheepishly shrugs in response, "and then you met Jonas from IT by spilling coffee all over him. Now everything is going downhill."

"Hey, that is not what I said! And can– can we stop calling him 'Jonas from IT'? I'm sure just 'Jonas' will suffice."

"'Everything going downhill' is basically what's happening, Rhys." Yvette gives him a smug smile then takes a bite of her burger. Rhys rolls his eyes at her dramatically. Summarizing everything like that just makes it all sound way worse than it really is. Or at least that's what Rhys believes. It's not all totally crazy, right?

He wasn't aware he'd voiced these thoughts until Vaughn replies, "It is pretty crazy, bro."

Rhys heaves a large sigh and nearly avoids face-planting the table when he remembers he actually has food there, and that would just make a mess. He didn't know why he thought this conversation would go well over lunch; Rhys isn't even hungry now.

They had made plans to go see a new paranormal movie that had come out recently, but Rhys bails halfway to the theater. He doesn't want to be _that_ friend, but he's not feeling his best now after having to come to terms with how much he's fucked up recently. Vaughn seems to understand, offering him that sympathetic smile he's been giving Rhys lately. Yvette just counters that Rhys owes her another lunch. Rhys thanks them for being so tolerant of him, and promises they can hang out again another time.

The rest of what should be his wonderful weekend is spent ignoring all of his responsibilities. Rhys stays in at home in his pajamas and mopes around. He rewatches the first season of House, then spend the rest of his time trying to make normal conversation over texts with Jonas.

  


By Monday, Rhys likes to think he's completely over himself (or at least over Jack.) He's in a relatively good mood considering it's the beginning of the week, but he guesses that maybe he'd gotten out most of his negative energy over the weekend. It's a rather enjoyable change of pace. 

He brings Jonas coffee this time around after taking a while to navigate his way to where the IT crew even was. Jonas relays his gratitude by pressing a quick kiss to Rhys's lips. The man is obviously a little more than pleased with himself regarding Rhys's response. Which is to say, surprised yet thrilled. 

Before Rhys heads back to his office, they make plans to go on an actual date this Friday and Rhys is doubtlessly looking forward to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so recently i did some major planning for the rest of the chapters and like i am such a psycho i tried to make a makeshift calendar to gauge where i was but then messed up 2 times so i had to download a separate calendar app on my phone just so i could accurately plan this fic out i am so crazy i hope i'm not the only one that does shit like that ;-;


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i wanted to go ahead and post this chapter simply bc i felt bad that i haven't updated in like 2 weeks lol. i'm about half way through ch 8 right now, so it shouldn't be too-too long before i finish it and start on ch 9 :P
> 
> i decided to make sasha and fiona rhys's foster sisters bc i do what i want and i don't really ship either of them with rhys so. that's a thing lol.
> 
> also this chapter ended up being waaay longer than i'd anticipated which makes me very happy bc all the other chapters have seemed extremely short to me, only being 1200-1800 words ;-; but this one was around 3300 so that's cool right? there was just no way i could break this chapter up in different parts so i hope it makes up for the past short chapters :P

The rest of the week goes by just as normally as the rest (well, maybe _before_ all of this insanity happened.) Another week of Jack not being an adult, and Rhys taking the high road. Rhys has to let himself be happy; pursuing Jack will not make Rhys happy. Jonas could make Rhys happy, and Rhys is going to give him a real chance. Rhys will not let Jack ruin things for him. That is Rhys's new motto, he supposes.

He's glad work hadn't been hectic this week, considering Jonas and he made plans to go to dinner Friday night, and Rhys wouldn't want to be exhausted from working during their date. Rhys had told Vaughn at lunch about his kiss with Jonas on Monday and their plans for Friday, and Vaughn tells him he's proud of him. He thinks Vaughn may be even more excited than Rhys is, but considering Vaughn is his best friend and he'd been with Rhys since the beginning of all this craziness, it doesn't surprise Rhys. (Not to mention that Vaughn had, uh, intimately helped Rhys out during that time.)

After clocking out on Friday, Rhys meets up with Jonas in the lobby and Jonas offers to drive them to the restaurant they'd planned on going to. The gesture is sweet and Jonas promises he'll bring Rhys back after dinner to pick up his own car. What Rhys hadn't been expecting was that Jonas's preferred mode of transportation is motorcycle. Rhys doesn't think he's even been this close to a motorcycle before.

"You actually ride this thing. To work." Rhys is pretty incredulous about the whole thing. Motorbikes don't seem like optimal transportation for someone who works in a business downtown.

"Yes," Jonas is grinning ear to ear, chuckling in amusement at Rhys's apparent wonder. He goes on to assure Rhys that it's totally safe (to which Rhys responds, "That seems highly debatable.")—he lets his sister ride with him to work every morning, so he even has extra equipment for Rhys to wear.

"You'll just have to trust me on this one," Jonas encourages, smiling reassuringly at Rhys, and passes him all the materials Jonas has for him. Rhys doesn't exactly trust people in general, but hey, Jonas hasn't died on this thing yet, so Rhys hesitantly takes the leather jacket and helmet and puts them on.

Rhys thinks he's more anxious than excited on the ride to the restaurant, and he can't decide if he's nervous about the date or if it's just the bike that's making him feel uneasy. Jonas proves to be a pretty generous driver, especially since he has Rhys with him, so at least he doesn't have to worry too much about dying before dinner.

Considering actually riding on a motorcycle, Rhys is experiencing all kinds of firsts tonight; they'd agreed beforehand to have dinner at a little Thai place not too far from the Hyperion building. Rhys has never had Thai food before, he thinks, but Jonas swore this place was amazing.

They find a place to park and it's only after Jonas kills the engine that Rhys realizes he's been clinging onto Jonas for dear life the entire ride, arms tight like a vise around the blond's waist. Jonas obviously finds it endearing, coaxing Rhys to let him go so his lower body can stop being numb. Rhys hopes he's exaggerating but immediately lets go just in case.

The restaurant is a little hole in the wall place, squished in between a pawn shop and a laundromat. Rhys is a little wary at first, but Jonas jokingly promises he won't die from the food or any outside elements on this date. (He might, however, potentially die from embarrassment when he gets stuck on Jonas's bike and has to enlist the man to help him down.)

Jonas assists Rhys in taking off his helmet and the taller man really hopes his hair doesn't look like a mess now—Jonas didn't seem to have that problem, his hair always looked effortlessly nice. While Rhys frets over his hair with one hand, Jonas takes his other and leads him into the tiny restaurant.

The atmosphere isn't the best and the service is a little shoddy, but it's some of the best food Rhys thinks he's ever eaten. He'd trusted Jonas completely on ordering and Rhys has liked everything so far. Their starter consisted of little chicken strips and some sort of peanut sauce, which ended up being way more appetizing than Rhys had imagined. They'd shared a plate of Pad Thai, which was unfortunately spiced way too much, but the two men managed the level of kick it had.

Rhys wasn't sure why, but conversation flowed so well with Jonas; Rhys felt like he could tell the other man anything and Jonas would be just fine with it. They told each other wildly varying stories of their relatively miserable lives during school, and then Jonas ordered dessert. Rhys isn't sure if the dish has an actual name, but either way, he's intrigued when the waitress brings them both separate plates of rice topped with mango slices, sauce drizzled over it all.

Rhys isn't sure if he even likes mangos, or what the sauce is going to taste like, but he finds himself trusting Jonas's judgement on the dish. Which turns out to be spectacular, Rhys is surprised to find. It's probably his new favorite thing, comically telling Jonas as such after Rhys takes the first bite.

"I have pretty good taste," Jonas jokes, but the warm look he gives Rhys makes it obvious that he wasn't talking about the food. Rhys tries so hard not to blush at the comment, but fails in doing so. Jonas softly chuckles at his reaction, but grants Rhys a good-natured smile.

An amused Jonas refuses to let Rhys pay, to which Rhys vehemently swears he's going to pay the next one.

"The next one huh?" Jonas smirks and Rhys sort of blanches for a moment, realizing what he's said. This is only their first _real_ date after all, apart from when they'd gone to lunch together when they first met. Jonas just shakes his head in laughter and tugs Rhys toward the exit. "C'mon, you dork."

The ride back to the Hyperion building is a little less stressful, Rhys definitely doesn't have to fear that he's going to die on Jonas's motorcycle. When they drive around to Rhys's car, Jonas walks him to it and gives him a gentle kiss goodnight. Which Rhys turns into making out against the door of his car until the position gets uncomfortable and they both laugh at their eagerness.

Rhys is red-faced and only a little breathless when he tells Jonas he had fun tonight. Jonas presses one last quick kiss to Rhys's lips that's just _this_ side of perfect, smiling in response before putting his helmet back on and gearing up his bike. Rhys watches him drive out of the parking garage, shamelessly grinning all the while. Rhys actually feels normal for once—not anguishing over his emotionally-stunted boss, just going on a normal date like a normal person. This is a nice development.

  


Jonas and he continue to alternate bringing each other coffee over the next week. (And they might end up casually making out in Rhys's office sometimes, but who's keeping track of that anyway.) Wednesday, Rhys tells Jonas that he's going with his foster sisters this Friday to see some movie the girls have been waiting for to come out, and that Jonas is more than welcome to come. Rhys encourages it, really, offering to pay for Jonas's ticket and everything. Jonas laughs and accepts the offer, then playfully forces Rhys to get back to work after Rhys begs him to stay and "keep him company".

Rhys is relatively surprised that Jack hasn't come to somehow ruin things, seeing as how Rhys hasn't heard from him since dinner at his house, aside from work. It's usually when Rhys is actually feeling good with himself that something Jack-related happens and Rhys falls into his ridiculous despair all over again.

The next two days continue regularly.

On Friday after lunch, Jonas walks back with Rhys to his office, too engaged in their conversation to break it up. Rhys is leaning back against the edge of his desk, facing an avidly gesturing Jonas and the door. Rhys has come to find that he likes just watching Jonas talk; the gestures he makes, how animatedly he relays things. Jonas seems so lively and genuine, and it makes Rhys's entire body warm in a way he hadn't even imagined it would.

Rhys is momentarily overtaken by the emotion swelling in him, tugging at Jonas's tie and cutting him off mid-sentence (something about being excited for their date later) to pull the other man toward him. Rhys presses their lips together with a smile, and he can feel Jonas grin back in equal measure, his arms moving to box Rhys in and prop himself up against the desk. Rhys is the one that deepens their kiss, his hands coming up to cup Jonas's jawline. Rhys smirks, breaking the kiss so he can hop up onto his desk, and Jonas eases his way between Rhys's legs.

Rhys makes a sighing noise in content and absentmindedly runs a hand through Jonas's wavy hair, slowly moving his mouth against the other man's. Jonas moves away from his lips, mouthing his way along Rhys's jaw, Rhys making soft groaning noises all the while. Rhys is so caught up in the moment, moving to hook his long legs around Jonas's hips, that he doesn't hear the single slight knock at his office door, nor does he hear when it opens. His boss's voice breaks through the fog in his mind, startling Rhys enough that he immediately jumps down from the edge of his desk, Jonas moving away from him completely.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jack starts in mock-confoundment, "I didn't know you were _busy_ , Rhys." The man in question is stuck between being embarrassed that his boss caught him in this position, or if he's just plain livid that Jack is still standing there, looking smug as ever. Rhys knows he's definitely not "sorry", especially with the way he's smirking at the pair, one eyebrow raised while he waits for either one of them to respond.

Rhys almost wants to tell him to fuck off, but settles for glaring at the man defiantly. "What do you want, Jack?"

Jack scoffs (Rhys isn't sure if he's actually offended or just amused) and rolls his eyes. "Well, I am your boss, kiddo. I brought ya some work to do. Y'know, so you can actually do your job instead of fucking around."

Rhys clenches his jaw, doesn't respond, and it takes all his sanity to not outright rip the papers from Jack's hands. Jonas is awkwardly standing to the side still, obviously more embarrassed than Rhys is. There's a tense silence for a moment, Rhys and Jack daring the other to say something. Jonas is the one that breaks the quiet.

"I'm just..gonna go now, Rhys. I-I'll see you later."

Rhys's challenging facade breaks for a moment, long enough to flash Jonas an apologetic smile as the blond slips out of his office. Once the door is close, Rhys immediately turns his spite right back to Jack, frowning at the man. "The hell was that about?"

"I hired you to do your job, not screw around with IT, princess," Jack snarls out. Rhys knows Jack has the right to be mad—after all, Rhys is pretty sure it's against company policy to get it on in your office during work hours, for a lack of better phrasing. That sense doesn't make Rhys any less angry at his boss, however. He's tempted to tell the man it's his fault in the first place. Maybe if Jack would make up his damn mind about what he wanted from Rhys, _with_ Rhys, he wouldn't have to get so blatantly jealous over Rhys seeing other guys.

Rhys doesn't say that, chooses to stay silent and scowling at the other man. Then Jack has that irritating smirk splayed across his face again, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's not very professional, after all, Rhysie."

Rhys is outright fuming at this point, making a sound in disbelief at Jack's hypocrisy. "Right, 'cause it was so professional when you were bending me over your desk!"

The remark doesn't seem like it surprises Jack more than it seems to irk him, effectively shocking him into silence. It's obvious that it rings true in Jack's mind, and Rhys keeps glowering at him when Jack doesn't respond. His boss doesn't get any say in what is and isn't _professional_ , especially with their past. Jack belittling him like this is simply ridiculous.

Jack's resolve breaks before Rhys's does, the man tossing his hands up and muttering "whatever" before turning and stalking out of the room. Rhys lets out the breath he'd been holding once he knows Jack is far away from his office, his hands shaking where he's holding the documents Jack had given him. That went as well as Rhys could have hoped, he supposes. Rhys hadn't expected Jack to respond kindly. (Though, he hadn't expected Jack to find out about Jonas in the first place.)

Rhys expels one last sighing breath before returning to his desk and getting to work. He'll have to hold off on apologizing to Jonas until later.

  


Rhys upholds his promise to meet his sisters at the movie theater, Jonas in tow. They exchange pleasantries, even if Rhys has been left in a foul mood from his encounter with Jack earlier in the day. He tries to get past it, tries to have a nice time with the girls and Jonas, but something in his brain is still pestering him. He can't focus on the movie, even if he does really try after Sasha elbows him in the ribs when she catches him not watching the screen. He feels bad for letting Jack ruin his mood, and in Rhys's opinion ruin his sort-of-date with Jonas.

After the movie, Rhys and Jonas sit quietly in the former's car, idling in the theater parking lot. Jonas, for the second time that day, breaks the rigid silence between them. "Are you feeling alright?"

Rhys isn't exactly caught off-guard by the question; it's been lingering between them all evening. He's suddenly so frustrated about everything, Jack still messing with his head even when he's not present. Instead of answering Jonas's question, Rhys reaches over to pull Jonas closer and kisses him none too gently.

With Jonas's consent, Rhys brings him back to his apartment for the night.

Jonas has Rhys crowded up against the front door as soon as it's closed, his mouth on Rhys's immediately. Jonas shrugs his jacket off, moving to assist Rhys in divesting his own while Rhys is busy loosening Jonas's tie. Jonas moves his attention to Rhys's neck once he's gotten the taller man's tie and shirt out of the way, and Rhys doesn't miss the way his own breath hitches when Jonas leaves bites across his collarbone.

Rhys has enough mind that he doesn't want to move things to the couch (having already had one too many conquests settled there), instead gently pushing Jonas away from the doorway and directing him to Rhys's bedroom. They leave a trail of clothing behind them that will probably be way too confusing to decipher between in the morning. For now, Rhys is only worried about getting Jonas out of his work pants, his hands working at the belt insistently.

Eventually they settle in the mess of blankets and sheets that is Rhys's bed, Rhys pulling Jonas down on top of him. Rhys's kisses are hunger-driven, and he wants everything fast and as intense as possible. Jonas's style is very contradicting of this, instead establishing a very slow but sensual way about every move he made. Rhys hesitantly concedes; fast and hard was how Jack did things, and Rhys realizes that's his first instinct now that he's been with the man. Rhys has to make himself slow down and solely enjoy the moment with Jonas.

Jonas breaks the kiss and smiles down at Rhys where he's holding himself above Rhys's lean body, his amber-colored eyes watching him. Rhys is torn between wanting to kiss him again and simply wanting to stay like that, watching each other contently. He settles for the former, smiling against the other man's lips when he kisses Jonas once more.

Jonas's hands are at Rhys's hips, but certainly not putting a stop to Rhys's steady grind against Jonas's own hips. Rhys suddenly pushes back and flips them over, Jonas on his back now, and Rhys is proud when he finally manages to pull a groaning sound out of the other man. Rhys presses kisses all along Jonas's jawline, down the column of his throat, and Jonas's hands stay anchored on Rhys's hips. He doesn't try to direct him like Jack would, waits for Rhys to take control. Rhys certainly appreciates the gesture, for what it's worth.

Jonas hums in content, smiling down at Rhys where the taller man has taken to sucking marks into the blond's clavicle. Rhys returns the smile when they meet eyes and Rhys lets out a soft huff of a laugh—he doesn't think he's taken things this slow in a long time. His thoughts are cut off when Jonas brings a hand up to pull Rhys's face to his own to kiss him.

Things proceed just as slowly from there, despite how eager the two of them really are. They finish undressing each other and when Rhys fishes the lube out of his nightstand drawer, Jonas takes it from his hands with a grin. Jonas gets Rhys back underneath him, fingers slick and prodding at Rhys's entrance, and Rhys gives him breathy moans in encouragement. Rhys is writhing and whimpering in no time.

When Jonas finally slides into him, Rhys can't help but feel he's still using Jonas in a way. Distracting himself from Jack, whether it be from whatever he felt for the man or just trying to forget their incident earlier in the day. But Jonas drives those thoughts from Rhys's mind when he fuck into him, setting a leisurely but rigorous pace. Rhys is already a wreck just after the first few thrusts, unable to string a single coherent thought together.

" _Fuck_ , J–" Rhys gasps when Jonas pushes into him just right, but bites down on his bottom lip to effectively cut himself off; he doesn't trust himself enough to not say his boss' name. Jonas groans nonetheless, and Rhys tightens his legs where they're propped up on the other man's hips. The blond is leaving flitting kisses all over Rhys's throat, and Rhys unexpectedly comes when Jonas rakes his teeth along the stretch of skin, a loud moan leaving Rhys's lips.

It doesn't take much to get Jonas off after that. Rhys runs his hands through his messy hair and along the freckled skin on his shoulders, practically purring at him all the while. When he does come, it's with a groan and a sigh of Rhys's name, panting into the skin of Rhys's neck. Rhys continues to pet whatever he can reach of Jonas's body, and the blond presses their lips together in a kiss after a moment of catching their breath. 

The afterglow is sweet and mind-numbing and Rhys continues to lie in the mess of sheets and pillows, sated and content. He doesn't realize he's starting to doze off, Jonas startling him awake when the man moves to clean them up. Rhys stretches out on the bed all catlike while Jonas is in the bathroom, his muscles already sore. When Jonas slips back into Rhys's bed, Rhys curls up around him, entangling their legs together. His skin tingles where Jonas lightly traces a finger across his back and Rhys eventually falls asleep to the rhythmic sound of the other man's breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm almost sorry that rhys and jonas's sex scene was relatively more descriptive than any of rhys and jack's. _almost_ sorry.
> 
> also i actually had to look up the plural form of mango for this chapter, then proceeded to get mad at the results and did my own thing anyway
> 
> also also, i somehow always forget to mention that condoms are a thing lol. if i never explicitly write them using one, just always assume that they are :P


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did i ever mention this fic was named after i want u by alison wonderland?? anyways it's a nice song, and it's a pretty good song for this fic lyric-wise lol
> 
> i also apologize that this chapter is a little choppy and slow and sucky in general. things were just not going how i wanted them to, whatsoever lmao. i had the ideas but lacked execution *cries*

Rhys wakes up to an empty bed and sun in his eyes the next morning. The source of sunlight is questionable, considering Rhys never has his curtains open, but he ultimately figures it was Jonas's doing. His whole apartment smells like bacon, which answers Rhys's second question of where Jonas had gone. Rhys wonders if he could go back to sleep for just a few minutes until Jonas came to wake him up to eat. He decides against it, instead languidly stretching along the bed then getting up to put on a pair of sweatpants.

On his relatively short trek from his bedroom to the tiny kitchen, Rhys idly wonders what Jonas has cooked, besides bacon. Rhys doesn't keep much food-wise around the house, usually doesn't have time after work to cook himself a proper meal, so he doesn't deal with getting groceries very often. He's pleasantly surprised to find that, once he does reach the kitchen, Jonas has made omelettes and is just now finishing up the bacon.

The grin Jonas flashes Rhys when he sees him approaching is pretty contagious, the taller man finding himself smiling back at the blond. Jonas focuses his attention back on the bacon, fishing it out of the pan and putting it all on a plate of napkins. "You didn't have much to cook, but I figured omelettes and bacon are always winners."

Rhys doesn't respond, just continues to smile at the man and presses a kiss to Jonas's cheek. Jonas turns into the kiss and Rhys lets their lips lock for a moment before pulling away when his stomach growls in protest. Jonas huffs in laughter and hands Rhys a plate full of delicious-looking food after dividing up the bacon. Great in bed _and_ he cooks—Rhys certainly picked a good one. (His mind unfortunately and very rudely reminds him that these are qualities Jack has also.) He kisses Jonas one more time to shake those last thoughts from his mind. Rhys definitely does not want to ruin his lovely morning after with thoughts of his deplorable boss.

They eat breakfast together on the couch, Criminal Minds re-runs playing in the background. Jonas goes to take a shower after he's helped clean up, Rhys eventually joining him, and they stay under the spray and kiss each other until the water threatens to turn cold. Deciphering between their work clothes from the night before does prove to be a challenging task, just as Rhys had thought. They're both roughly the same size and wear practically the same things. It doesn't take too long, however, and once Jonas is redressed, he tells Rhys he has to get somewhere soon and he'll just call a cab to take him to the Hyperion building to get his bike. Rhys starts to protest, but Jonas insists, not wanting to make Rhys drive that far on the weekend. With a pretty-perfect kiss and a promise to text Rhys later, Jonas leaves the apartment building.

Rhys isn't sure what to do with himself for the rest of the day. He doesn't have plans, doesn't have anything pressing he needs to work on. But he's full of restless energy and he has to find something, anything to do until it runs out. He considers simply inviting Vaughn over, but Rhys feels like he's done that way too much recently. With a sigh of resignation, he decides to head to the gym. He hasn't been in a while, always busy with work, and it would be a good place to let himself think about the craziness that has been his life recently.

He doesn't stay at the gym for long, quickly tiring of it and not exactly feeling up to it, even from the start. Rhys gets a text from Jonas on his way back home, telling Rhys he " _had fun ;)_ " and that he would drop by his office on Monday to see him. Rhys smiles to himself, tells the other man that is was definitely a fun night and he would be looking forward to seeing him Monday.

 

Monday is hectic, to say the least. Jonas had stopped by Rhys's office only for a moment earlier in the day, simply because Rhys's computer was acting up and hey, Jonas _was_ the resident IT guy, so why not. He didn't get to stay for long, especially when Jack showed up to bark orders at Rhys. It was initially weird for all three men to be in the same room again, but Rhys's flaring irritation at actual work won out over his anger at his boss. Jonas had left halfway through Jack's ranting, and Rhys didn't get the chance to ask him out for lunch.

Rhys begrudgingly runs things back and forth from Jack's office all day. He isn't sure if it's just the work pace or if it's just Jack being Jack, but Rhys can tell his boss is being significantly more of a dick than usual today. Rhys is pretty sure he caught one of the new secretaries fleeing in hysterics from the man's office on his way to the break room.

The rest of the week is just as chaotic and frantic. Jack is just as much of a dick as he had been on Monday. He seems to aim a lot of it at Rhys, and Rhys is unsure whether it's intentional or not. (If he had to guess though, he'd say it probably is intentional; Jack is exactly the kind of person to do petty shit like that.)

Rhys catches a break on Thursday, actually gets to go out and have a proper lunch with Jonas rather than snacking on crackers and peanut butter at his desk. They go to the small cafe downstairs in the Hyperion building, and make plans to do something together the coming weekend. They eventually have to return to work, and Rhys finds that Jack has so kindly dropped off piles of paperwork on his desk in his absence. What an asshole, Rhys thinks; Jack's obviously doing this on purpose.

Rhys sighs and idly considers how much trouble he'd be in if he told Jack to just fuck off, then unenthusiastically decides to get to work.

Friday is filled with more of Jack's incessant raving and more piles of paperwork, courteous of the man in question. Vaughn stops by Rhys's office on his lunch break to bring him some food, and Rhys has never been more thankful (for food, anyway.) Vaughn hangs out for a minute, asking for vague details of Rhys's sort-of-date with Jonas the Friday prior. Rhys leaves out the bit where they slept together, so there hadn't been much to tell, but he does try to tell Vaughn about the movie they'd seen. When the shorter man seems satisfied with his friend's answers and Rhys finishes his lunch, Vaughn leaves his office.

Rhys ends up working after hours, which he had honestly been trying to prevent. It was unavoidable, however, and he doesn't get back to his apartment until after 7 o'clock. He cooks a measly meal consisting of ramen noodles, then takes a shower and gets ready for bed. To say that Rhys is exhausted would be an understatement. Whether it simply be the work load he's had the entire week or his boss deliberately going out of his way to be a complete douchebag to Rhys, Rhys is just happy to be able to lie down in his comfy bed and rest.

Sleep doesn't come as easy as Rhys had hoped, and he stays up for hours contemplating things he would really rather not.

 

A decent night's sleep had done him no good. He's still as mad at Jack as he'd been when he went to sleep, mostly because the man had been a complete asshole the entire work week, but still about how he'd treated the situation with Jonas. Rhys feels vaguely guilty to even be thinking about Jack at all, like Jonas is going to find out that Rhys is hung up on his boss deep, _deep_ down somewhere. Then Rhys feels even more guilty because he just admitted to himself that he is indeed still hung up on Jack, whether Rhys likes it or not.

Rhys's alarm is what had woken him up, which he doesn't remember even setting or why exactly he would set an alarm for so early on the weekend in the first place. It takes him a moment to recall what all he had planned today, lazing around in the comfort of his bed until his phone goes off again, this time with a text from Jonas. Casual morning pleasantries are exchanged, Jonas tells Rhys he has errands to run all day, but he will still be able to come over to Rhys's apartment later tonight like they had planned. That's hours away; they had set a tentative time for around 6 o'clock, so they could eat dinner and then lounge about for the rest of the night. Rhys left Jonas an open invitation to stay the night.

It's a struggle to leave the comfortableness and warmth of his bed, but Rhys eventually gets up and goes to take a shower. Underneath the hot spray of the water, he ponders what he should do for dinner tonight. Whether he should properly cook something or if he could afford (both financially and with Jonas) to be lazy and order take-out. He makes a mental note to ask Jonas which he would prefer, then gets out of the shower.

He sits around on his bed in his towel way longer than is probably necessary, texting Jonas and inquiring about dinner ideas. The blond seems very keen about Rhys's suggestion of Chinese food, so that is settled pretty quickly. At least Rhys won't have to go to the grocery store now because who knows what he even has stowed away in his kitchen cabinets and what all he would need if he had decided to actually cook dinner later.

Rhys eventually changes into a comfortable pair of boxers and wanders around the house looking for things to keep himself occupied. He cleans a little here and there, gets a start on his laundry, cleans some more, and debates maybe getting a cat (which he decides against, for now.) He almost regrets taking his shower so early because now he'll have to wait even longer to properly get dressed for when Jonas comes over. It's only a quarter past 1 now, Rhys huffs in boredom when he sees as much with a glance at the time on his phone, and he finally settles down on the couch to watch tv.

He isn't sure how long he spends perusing titles on Netflix before he realizes there's nothing good on and he turns the television off. Rhys sits and contemplates if he actually wants to go out and rent a movie or two for him and Jonas to watch tonight. He ultimately pesters himself enough to get off the couch and put some actual clothing on, before heading off to the store for dvds. It lets him waste some time while waiting for 6 to roll around.

He doesn't find much once he starts his search, but he does end up buying the original Ghostbusters and the third season of The Office. The entire trip to the store wasn't entirely irrelevant, Rhys guesses. He picks up a few snacks then heads back home. Once he has returned to his apartment, Rhys finds he still has about three or so hours to kill and grumbles to himself. If only he had more of a social life, he thinks distantly, then maybe he would have some way to occupy himself for three hours. He resignedly parks himself back on his couch and puts in one of the dvds he'd bought to watch.

Rhys hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep half-way through the movie when his phone vibrates, startling him awake. He barely recalls his dream, something having to do with Jack, which is insanely irksome. His living room is dark now, the tv playing the Ghostbusters main menu over and over, and Rhys has to dig into the sofa cushions to find his phone. He's surprised to find it's almost 6 and Jonas had texted Rhys to tell him he'd be over in about twenty minutes. Rhys wont admit that he proceeds to panic but he does, frantically hurrying to get dressed in something that he didn't deem pajamas. After he asks Jonas what he wants food-wise, Rhys calls in the order for their take-out.

Twenty minutes later, Jonas has barely walked into Rhys's apartment before someone is knocking at the door again. Rhys holds off on properly greeting Jonas, instead answering the door and taking the bags of food from the delivery guy. Rhys flashes Jonas a grin once the door is closed once again and puts the food on the bar in the kitchen before finally turning to the blond.

"I'm just in time, I see," Jonas says with a smile then presses a chaste kiss against Rhys's waiting lips. "I also brought a few movies we can choose from to watch."

Jonas pulls a messenger bag off his shoulder and drops it onto the nearest barstool, taking a couple dvd cases out of it and hands them to Rhys. "You pick, I'll go set up the food." And with that, Jonas takes all the take-out bags into the adjacent living room.

Rhys finds himself not as hungry as he thought he'd be and turns his attention from food and the movie he's barely watching to Jonas instead. Rhys isn't sure what he wants, what he wants his next move to be, and watches Jonas watching the movie intently. Rhys can feel that same warmth in his body that overtook him that day in Rhys's office, and finally reaches over to take the other man's chin in his grasp and pulls him into a kiss. Jonas seems genuinely surprised at first, but Rhys can feel when Jonas starts to smile against his lips.

At some point, Rhys had been patiently sitting beside the blond on the couch, then ended up kneeling on the ground between the man's legs halfway through the movie. Jonas lets Rhys blow him, then leisurely fucks Rhys into the couch until he can't even think clearly. Drives any and all lingering thoughts of his boss, the guilt, whatever feelings he felt for either of the men. Rhys lets his mind blank completely, forgets anything but the feeling of Jonas moving on top of him.

He knows his creaky sofa won't be the best place to sleep for the night, but afterwards, Rhys can't find it in himself to care. Jonas takes care of cleanup, Rhys still boneless and blissed out on the couch. They fall asleep curled up around each other underneath a throw blanket as Star Wars continues to play in the background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> on a random note, i love when you guys comment and stuff, it's lets me know people are actually reading this lmao
> 
> also, as a reminder, i am still absolutely winging this shit lmao i hope you guys think it's going alright ^^;


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm posting this early bc i got tired of seeing it as a draft xD i'm almost done with ch 10, and then i'll get started on ch 11, so hopefully i won't keep you guys waiting long
> 
> i just want to go ahead and warn for dub-con later for jack simply bc he _is_ drunk, but not drunk enough to not know what he's really doing i guess
> 
> i wish i could sleep as much as rhys fucking does in this fic
> 
> also i'm sorry this chapter is a little eh. my writing just completely failed me lmao. and i'm sorry if the beginning seems super boring lol, i don't really like writing filler so i'm not good at it xD

"You should meet Vaughn," Rhys says, fingers stroking through Jonas's blond hair. There's soft morning light leaking in through the window, chasing off shadows in Rhys's living room. Jonas's head rests on top of Rhys's heaving chest.

"That's not something I'd expect to hear after sex."

Rhys breaks into a fit of giggles, gently pulling Jonas up to kiss him. He honestly hadn't expected to even say it. Rhys had been thinking about the fact that, even if Jonas and he hadn't talked about whether they were "official" or not, Rhys wanted Jonas to meet his best friend. (They already have one thing in common, his brain rudely supplies.)

"He's my best friend," Rhys smiles, Jonas moving to press slow and sweet kisses along Rhys's collar bones. "He works in accounting."

Jonas makes a humming noise against Rhys's neck, Rhys chuckling quietly at the feeling.

Rhys doesn't know when he fell back asleep, but when he wakes up, Jonas is untangling himself from Rhys's body. The man consecutively covers him up with the throw blanket that had been kicked to the floor and presses a gentle kiss to Rhys's cheek. Rhys keeps his eyes closed, too content to even open them, and listens as the water in the hall bathroom cuts on.

Rhys lets out a noncommittal sigh, refusing to get up from the couch for a moment, then sighs again and heads into the kitchen to see if he can scrounge up something to cook for breakfast. After a futile search, Rhys finds he has everything but breakfast items and he silently hopes that Jonas is fine with cereal. Rhys momentarily hears the shower shut off and after a while, Jonas emerges and pads his way into the kitchen.

"I hope you like cereal because it's literally all I have," Rhys tells him around a mouthful of food. Jonas laughs at the comment and they proceed to eat cheerios together at the kitchen bar.

  


Jonas has to leave sometime after 1, and Rhys walks down to the parking lot with him, kisses him goodbye before heading back inside. He's already dreading work tomorrow, knowing even now that Jack is sure to be just as much of an ass as he'd need the week before. Instead of worrying about it, Rhys decides to take a nap. Well, he _tries_ to take a nap; it's doesn't really happen, his mind too busy revolving around his boss once again.

Rhys just wants to know why the hell Jack was on his mind so often. The man is disrupting his life even when Rhys wasn't in his presence. Not to mention, attempting to ruin his love-life, whether Jack was aware of it or not. Rhys could not, for the life of him, get Jack out of his head.

Rhys spends the rest of his Sunday cleaning up around the house and binge watching as many shows as he can. He texts Vaughn and Jonas off and on all day, pretends he has his shit together even if he doesn't. Rhys eventually talks Vaughn and Jonas into meeting each other for lunch the next day with Rhys, not that it was some great feat to get them to agree—they actually seemed pretty eager to finally meet each other. Rhys doesn't exactly worry after that, but he is a little nervous about the two of them meeting. But then he figures how could anyone not like either of them, and decides that lunch should go well.

  


The nervousness over Monday's lunch with Vaughn and Jonas was, as Rhys had thought, in vain. The two had hit it off right away and Rhys thinks their only argument was jokingly over whether aliens could actually exist or not. (Jonas had won that silly argument and Rhys had felt a little proud of him.)

Returning to work was a chore for Rhys. Jack, like Rhys had predicted the day before, was equally if not more so of a dick than he'd been the week prior. Ordering Rhys around for no reason, getting him to go back and forth for ridiculous things that turned out to mean nothing after Rhys had completed whatever task. It wasn't like Rhys could say no. Jack had been right, he was Rhys's boss, and Rhys needed to do his job. But Jack was kind of taking advantage of the situation.

Jack works him as much as he can, and by Friday, Rhys is beyond exhausted. He had worked late, gotten home around 7 or so and had went straight to bed. He wakes up sometime around 3 am when his stomach growling is too agonizing to ignore. He's still half asleep and makes himself a bowl of cereal since it was the easiest (though, he does accidentally get milk everywhere; he thinks this would be the best time to have that cat he'd been thinking about getting.)

He plants himself on the couch while he eats and turns on the tv, not bothering to change it and leaving it on whatever channel he'd left it on last time he'd watched it. He doesn't intend to fall back asleep on the sofa but he ends up doing just that, and when he wakes up, the living room is bright with sunlight and he has a crick in his neck. It takes him a panicked moment to realize today is Saturday and he isn't running late for work.

A quick glance at his phone tells him he's slept in until a little after 10 am, which is pretty surprising for Rhys. He's usually up and awake before 9. He shrugs it off, tallying it up to him being so damn tired from the work week. He texts his friends, who are both busy today, then he texts Jonas and the man tells Rhys he's unfortunately working overtime today. Even a few quick messages to his sisters reveals that even they have plans and will be out of state all weekend. Rhys ultimately decides to be a proper adult and gets ready to head to the store; he's long overdue on grocery shopping, anyway.

Rhys decides to go ahead and get everything he'll need for a while at the store, and he doesn't get back home to his apartment until 12 o'clock. He spends the rest of his afternoon working a little from his phone, paying overdue bills, and binge-watching shows on Netflix. He tires of Netflix pretty quickly and eventually turns the tv off, sitting back on his couch and remains sitting there in uncertainty. He considers the fact that he should really get a hobby, but then reminds himself he's always working and he _does_ hang out with his friends on the weekends when they're not busy.

He lies back on the couch, staring at the ceiling fan slowly turning and contemplates way too much until his stomach starts growling at him in hunger. Rhys decides to go out and get something to eat, like that is the more sensible action as opposed to eating something from all the food he'd bought at the store earlier. He figures he has some time to waste so he won't be completely bored, and he drives out a little ways just to go to his favorite barbecue joint.

He doesn't really have the money to, but he heads to the mall to waste even more time. Walking around and window shopping doesn't prove to be as fun when he's alone, and after an hour or so, he heads back home.

It's nearing 6 o'clock when he walks in the door, taking off his jacket and tossing it over the barstool parked in front of the kitchen bar. He collapses on his couch in a jaded manner and sighs. He still has so much time to kill until it's a considerably proper time to turn in for the night. Rhys checks his work email, noticing a lack of them from Jack and idly wonders what the man is up to. Rhys stops that thought before it really even starts; he is _not_ going there today. Jack needs to be the farthest thing from Rhys's mind unless it's strictly work-related.

There's a sudden knocking at Rhys's door that's really more of a soft pounding than anything, and Rhys is startled out of his thoughts. He eyes the door suspiciously; he's not expecting anyone or anything to be at his door tonight. Rhys quietly ponders who it could possibly be, maybe one of his friends, or even Jonas. When he opens the door after another bout of impatient knocking, he's more than a little surprised at who who finds there.

"Jack?"

"He-eyyy, Rhysie!" Rhys cringes at the nickname and his boss' tone; he is so blatantly drunk. The man gives Rhys a lopsided smirk, and tries to lean against the doorway as best as he can without slipping. "Wanna invite me in?"

There's a million thoughts that race through Rhys's mind at that question. _Does_ he want to let Jack inside? The last time his boss had showed up on his doorstep was roughly a month ago and Rhys can't forget what the night had devolved into. He wants to tell Jack no, to fuck off because he has no right to turn up at Rhys's apartment at all, nevertheless drunk. Rhys finds himself unable to say anything, however, and stands there staring at Jack in bewilderment until Rhys finally caves and moves aside to let the man stumble in.

Jack refuses Rhys's offer to help him inside, instead fumbling his way to the couch and roughly flopping down on it. He promptly strips himself of his leather jacket and lets it fall to the floor. Rhys heads to the kitchen to get him some water.

"'S a neat little place ya got here," Jack grins from his seat on the sofa, looking around the room. Rhys ignores the comment and pushes a bottle of water into Jack's hand when he returns.

"Drink."

Jack rolls his eyes but takes a long drink from the bottle. He doesn't seem to want to tell Rhys why the hell he decided to up and come to Rhys's apartment. All attempts at getting an answer just ends up in Jack derailing and switching the subject. Rhys hesitantly takes a seat next to the man, ignoring all the shouting in his head about how it's probably a bad idea and he should make Jack go home.

Rhys realizes something after a moment. "I really hope you didn't drive here."

"Naaah, I got a ride." It's too vague an answer for Rhys but that's all Jack tells him. Then he's moving closer to Rhys on the couch, his arm thrown along the back of it. "I ever tell you how pretty you are?"

Oh, no. Rhys is _definitely_ not venturing down that road. He still isn't over how much of a complete douchebag Jack has been to him for the past two weeks, and now he's drunk in Rhys's living room probably trying to get in his pants. Rhys doesn't respond to Jack's comment, instead trying his absolute best to not look at the man next to him.

Rhys breaks his streak of looking anywhere but Jack when he catches movement out of the corner of his eye. Jack is loosening his tie, easing back into the comfort of the couch cushions. "What do you see in that guy anyway?"

It takes Rhys a moment for it to completely click in his mind that Jack is referring to Jonas. Rhys is too shocked really to even acknowledge Jack's ridiculous question that was none of his business to begin with. Jack doesn't wait for Rhys to answer, leaning into Rhys's space and Rhys can feel Jack's alcohol-riddled breath next to his ear.

"I bet I could fuck you better," Jack whispers and Rhys can feel Jack's free hand smoothing its way across his thigh. Rhys bites his lip, his hands tightening into fists as a surge of indignation bolts through him. Rhys isn't sure if he's more infuriated by Jack's assumption that he's slept with Jonas (which is true) or the jab at Jonas personally.

Rhys tries to tell Jack that he needs to leave, that Rhys will call him a cab and he can go home. Instead, his lips are captured in a kiss by Jack. Rhys pushes him away after a moment, letting Jack kiss him for much longer than he needed to, trying to gather his scrambling thoughts. The man may be drunk, but Rhys is still exasperated by Jack's remark about Jonas and the fact that Jack is actually drunk and here in his apartment trying to get into bed with him.

"Jack, we–"

"Relax, kitten," Jack crowds into Rhys's space again. "Look, I like you," Jack continues and god– it sounds so genuine but he's drunk and Rhys knows better than to believe anything that Jack has to say to him. He doesn't say anything more after that like Rhys thought he would, and he doesn't try to kiss Rhys again which is sort of a relief.

Rhys can't deny that this is what he's been relatively waiting for, for Jack to come to him. Rhys had expected him to be sober and maybe apologetic, but the man is here nonetheless. It's disappointing, though; Rhys has been waiting so long for Jack to say something like that to him, and when Jack does outright say it, the man is undeniably drunk. If he really wanted to say those kinds of things to Rhys, he would have done it sober.

Rhys's mind is a mess and his heart is pounding, and Jack's stare keeps darting from his eyes to his lips and back up. Thoughts of Jonas linger at the forefront of Rhys's mind and he vaguely wonders if this is considered cheating if they're not officially dating. The guilt churning in his body makes his chest hurt but he finds himself leaning forward to kiss his boss despite his better judgement. _You're fucking everything up_ is echoing in his mind like a mantra and he knows he's fucking everything up. He pushes all the thoughts of how wrong this is aside and Jack deepens the kiss, bringing a hand up to Rhys's jaw.

Rhys hates that he can feel deep down how much he truly wants this and Jack makes it obvious he does too. They end up tangled together in Rhys's bed, Jack sucking marks into his smooth skin and Rhys desperately hopes they won't be noticeable. Jack has more coordination than Rhys would imagine as he fucks into him, and Rhys eventually pushes the man on his back to ride him.

Afterwards, when Jack is asleep next to Rhys in his bed, Rhys keeps thinking of how much he's fucking things up. He'd been doing relatively great, he and Jonas were doing great. Everything was goddamn great and Jack had to waltz in and ruin it. Rhys doesn't want to think about the simple reason as to why it was so easy for Jack to ruin things, how it was really Rhys's fault and not Jack's.

Rhys spends way too long staring up at his ceiling like it'll give him the answers he needs, give him the guidance he longs for. He eventually falls asleep to sounds of Jack's soft snoring and hopes that things will be clearer in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm dead bc drunk jack wasn't even originally going to be a thing or a part of this chapter, but then i was listening to feelings by maroon 5 and decided why tf not lmao. more drama i guess xD plus rhys's life is pretty fuckin boring so :P


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the beginning of this chapter didn't really go how i wanted it to, but i couldn't find any other way to write it lol. i tried writing it like three other different ways but none of them worked so.. here we are :P
> 
> i'm sorry i took forever to post this. i got writer's block near the end and could not for the life of me write anything halfway decent. and keep in mind i baaarely proofread it bc i got sick of looking at it xD
> 
> also this is a long chapter (to me anyway) sorry (?)  
> as a precursor, it's roughly a little more than 4k words.

When Rhys wakes up, the first thing he does is internally panic because holy shit, there's somebody in his bed. And then the events of the night before flood his mind and he groans in frustration. He can't believe he let that happen; he'd been trying to get over his boss, relatively keeping whatever feelings he had for Jack at bay, and it had been especially easy since Jack had been acting like such a child. (Rhys guesses he hasn't been any better—he's been avoiding Jack as much as Jack had been avoiding him.) He panics some more when he thinks about what would happen if Jonas found out.

Rhys regrets this so much, and yet he doesn't at the same time. This is what he had been waiting for, whether he wanted to admit it or not. He had wanted Jack to take some initiative for once. Rhys still doesn't know what exactly Jack wants from him, but it's a start, right? And he can't stop thinking about what Jack had said last night. Drunk or not, he'd admitted that he liked Rhys. (Rhys just hopes that that wasn't just the alcohol talking.)

Jack has an arm slung possessively over Rhys's waist, and Rhys can't help but take note of the tattoo encircling his wrist that he'd managed to never notice before. Rhys risks a glance up at Jack's sleeping face; he looks younger like this, less intense. Rhys scrubs those thoughts from his mind. He needs to get Jack out of his apartment, now. Rhys subsequently huffs at the realization that Jack is going to be hungover and it's going to be a whole ordeal to get him back to his own home, he's sure.

Rhys sighs and lies back, willing his mind to kindly unscramble his thoughts. He needs a well thought out plan of action, but his brain isn't giving anything up, only reminders of how messed up this is and—

"I can hear your brain whirring from here, kid. Go back to sleep."

Rhys is startled when he hears Jack's muffled voice, sleepy and lethargic. Jack takes advantage of Rhys's momentary surprise at him being awake and sidles closer to him, hiding his face in Rhys's shoulder, away from the light pervading the bedroom. It takes Rhys a full minute to realize that he's irrevocably angry with the man, furious even. He quickly moves to shove Jack off and away from him, Jack wincing and bringing a hand up to his assumably pounding head.

" _Hangover_ , cupcake! C'mon," Jack whines at Rhys, glaring holes into him. Rhys wants to yell at him, wants to berate him, demand to know why he showed up drunk at Rhys's doorstep last night. None of that happens, instead Rhys just shouts, "What the _fuck_ , Jack?"

"You weren't complainin' last night," Jack grumbles. He doesn't specifically answer Rhys's question, groaning in something that's either chagrin or just plain annoyance at his hangover—Rhys can't decipher which. Jack still doesn't respond as he pushes aside the mess of sheets and gets up from Rhys's bed, traipsing off to the adjoining bathroom.

"What the fuck?" Rhys murmurs, more to himself this time than anything. He wishes he could have talked some sense into himself last night, rather than getting involved with whatever games Jack is trying to play.

Rhys falls back in his bed with a huff. He's torn between being a courteous human being and getting some painkillers and water for Jack when he gets out of the shower, and being a dick because it's not Rhys's fault he got drunk. But, Rhys decides, no matter how vexed he is with Jack, Rhys is even more angry with himself. And Rhys is still a decent guy, he thinks, so he bitterly gets out of bed and heads to the kitchen.

Rhys is so fucked.

  


Getting rid of Jack is easier than Rhys had thought. Despite being together in Rhys's tiny apartment, they managed to elude each other pretty well. Rhys, frustrated, tries again to get Jack to tell him what the hell last night was all about. Jack waves him off and calls a cab instead. He's out the door before Rhys can do much protesting, and Rhys stands there cursing at him long after Jack has gone.

The seriousness of the situation weighs down on Rhys like nothing ever had before. He thought pining after his boss was unbearable before; everything is just so screwed up now. Rhys is getting tired of being so resentful towards Jack all the time, but Jack still isn't giving him the answers Rhys wants. What's worse now is that he's dating Jonas, official or not, and god– everything is so _fucked up_.

Rhys is already dreading work Monday. It's become a trend for Rhys now, to be apprehensive of going into work simply because Jack will be there, Jack will be there to torture him as much as humanely possible like he has been recently. Rhys will have to see Jonas, will have to feel so damn guilty because Jonas has been nothing but amazing to Rhys, and how does Rhys repay him? He sleeps with his boss. 

The thought of it all makes him so infuriated, at himself, at Jack, at their situation, how _stupid_ Rhys has been about everything. How is Rhys going to handle being this agitated all week? 

Rhys is, legitimately, so fucked.

  


Monday, as predicted, is hell—big shocker. But Jack seems to have eased off of his asshole setting and is kind of leaving Rhys alone for the most part, and Rhys thinks that stresses him even more. It's easy to tell when Jack is mad at him (for whatever asinine reasons the man may have) when he's bossing him around more than usual, but today he's relatively normal, like before. That throws Rhys off way more than it probably should.

He stresses literally all day, ditches lunch because he feels sick to his stomach. When there's a knock at his office door roughly an hour after lunch, Rhys has to stamp down on the tiny sliver of hope that it's Jack and maybe he's come to– do something, at least. Rhys is more surprised to find Jonas on the other side of the door, and a whole new bout of guilt and stress floods his system. It makes his chest tight and his movements jerky, but he's filled with a restless energy and needs to get rid of it somehow.

Rhys registers that Jonas is speaking to him, but Rhys has the blond's tie in his grip and he's pulling him in for a kiss that's more tongue and teeth than anything. Rhys thinks his reasoning behind it is he can drown out whatever contrition he feels, keep himself busy so he doesn't tell Jonas what he'd done with Jack over the weekend.

He doesn't even know what his intentions originally were, but things escalate more than Rhys thought they might and he has to lock his office door when Jonas sneaks a hand down Rhys's pants. He soon finds himself trying to keep as quiet as possible as Jonas fucks him against his desk, unhurried but at the same time hasty enough so they don't get caught. Rhys thinks this is definitely against company policy. There's a strange awkwardness afterwards, but Jonas kisses him slow and gentle until Rhys doesn't feel so tense anymore.

"Been a Monday?" Jonas speaks up after the both of them are properly dressed and Rhys unlocks the door. He's smiling when he asks, and all Rhys can think is that Jonas has _no_ idea.

Rhys huffs sardonically, "Yeah, you could say that."

They eventually discuss what Jonas had come there for originally, and Rhys kisses him before he lets Jonas out of his office. He watches Jonas flash a smile at Vaughn who is steadily approaching Rhys's office. The shorter man makes a displeased face at Rhys when Rhys lets him in the room.

"Your entire office smells like sex."

"Well–" Rhys doesn't get to try to explain it away, Vaughn cutting him off. "Nope, no. Don't even wanna know."

Vaughn eventually sighs and leans back against Rhys's desk. Rhys keeps quiet, waiting for Vaughn to say something, watches as he runs a hand over his face.

"Rhys."

It's the tone in which Vaughn says his name that Rhys knows the other man is going to criticize him about Rhys's _activities_ with Jonas. "Don't even start with me, Vaughn."

"I'm just going to say this," Vaughn holds his hands up in– surrender, defense? Rhys can't be sure which, "it's really not healthy for you to keep using Jonas to make Jack jealous–"

"I am not doing this to make Jack jealous!"

"You are too stubborn for your own good. You and Jack both," Vaughn lets out an exhausted sigh. Rhys doesn't know what that's supposed to mean, can't hear himself think over the irritation rising in him. Rhys wants to think Vaughn doesn't get any say in what Rhys does relationship-wise, but the man _is_ his best friend and Rhys knows he's only trying to help.

"You know I'm right, Rhys, c'mon man.. You and Jack have been dancing around each other for months. It's _obvious_ you both feel something for each other," Vaughn gives Rhys a pointed look, "and you and I both know it's not just lust."

"Okay, fine! Of course I'm in love with him, is that what you want to hear? Is that so terrible?" But it's really not that simple. He may be in love with Jack (and that's the first time he's ever admitted it to anyone but himself, and out loud nonetheless) but he still feels _something_ for Jonas. He's sweet and safe and actually makes it obvious to Rhys what he wants, just wants Rhys to be happy.

"No, but not telling him exactly that is. You've obviously been trying to make him jealous this entire time, and while I have enjoyed and appreciate our past platonic escapades, that's not going to change that you do love him. And bringing Jonas in it–"

"I know, Vaughn," Rhys absentmindedly runs a hand through his gelled hair, leaning back against the wall opposite Vaughn, like maybe putting this distance between them will help Rhys think more clearly.

"Then it's about damn time you tell him! I mean, I don't want to force you, okay? But this is just unhealthy for both of you and you can't keep doing this shit." The _especially to Jonas_ goes unspoken.

They're both quiet for a moment; Rhys's head is a mixed up jumble of emotions and feelings, and confusion for the most part. He has a headache now just trying to think through everything. He can't deny that everything Vaughn had said was true, but it's way bigger than Vaughn thinks. Telling Jack he loves him is an incredible feat on its own, what with how Jack closes himself off at every opportunity. And Jonas is a whole other equation. Rhys likes him, there's no way around that, but his feelings seem much more tame compared to what he feels for Jack.

Everything is so fucked up.

"Look," Vaughn speaks up, quiet now like all that aggressive energy has left his system, "I didn't come here to criticize you, I apologize." Vaughn pushes off where he was propped on the desk and crosses the small distance to Rhys. He rests a hand on Rhys's shoulder comfortingly.

"But I just– I don't want you to get hurt, bro."

It's so cliche that Rhys is tempted to outright laugh; he permits himself a small smile at the sentiment instead. Rhys returns the kindness and brings a hand up to Vaughn's own shoulder. He can't promise that he'll solve this all immediately, but he's going to try to figure out what he needs to do to get his shit straight.

"Thank you, I really do appreciate it."

Vaughn gives him that kind-hearted smile and squeezes where he has Rhys's shoulder in his grip. "I just care about you, dude. Now, come on, we can go grab a late lunch."

  


For the rest of the day, Rhys tries his hardest not to stress too much. It's pretty difficult though, when Rhys is trying to decide whether to end things with Jonas and pursue Jack, or if he wanted to still try to forget Jack and continue with Jonas. (Something in the back of his mind reminds him just how well the former option has gone so far.)

Rhys isn't sure if it's because Jack remembers what he said to Rhys on Saturday night or if he's possibly embarrassed about showing up at Rhys's apartment drunk, but the man continues to be practically amenable the rest of the week. He's back to relatively avoiding Rhys, like back when their whole thing started. Rhys wants to think that Jack is trying to figure things out for himself like Rhys is.

Jonas is his normal amazing self all week and it just makes things that much more difficult for Rhys. He knows that, in the end, he wants Jack and nothing is going to change that. Rhys knows he's going to have to break things off with Jonas and it upsets Rhys, to be honest. He knows his parting with Jonas is inevitable, but that doesn't stop Rhys from wishing things were different, wishing Jack wasn't so difficult, wishing he himself wasn't so damn difficult.

He doesn't get much sleep over the week no matter how hard he tries.

  


Rhys's stress continues to mount when, on Saturday morning, Jonas asks him if he maybe wanted to go out, do whatever Rhys wanted. Rhys feels so bad because he wants to decline the offer, but he doesn't have an excuse. _"Well, you see, I realized I'm kind of in love with our boss and I don't know if I want to keep seeing you,"_ is probably not the best answer Rhys could give him.

His dilemma is solved when Sasha texts Rhys and tells him she and Fiona are coming back into town and they want to meet up if Rhys is free. It's the perfect cop-out if Rhys ever had one. He musters as much regret as he can into a text to Jonas to inform him today wasn't good for him and tells him about his sisters. Jonas, of course, is completely okay with that, more than happy to let him go out with his sisters, and that's probably what makes Rhys feel even worse about ditching him.

Rhys eventually sighs and gets up to start getting ready to go meet his sisters. Before he can think about it, he texts Vaughn and tells him about the girls and asks if he wanted to tag along. Rhys doesn't mention to him that Jonas wanted to hang out today, or that he could have just as easily invited Jonas instead of Vaughn. Vaughn accepts the offer and tells Rhys he'll meet him there.

Less than an hour later, Rhys is pulling his car into the parking lot of the cafe the girls wanted to meet at. He notices Vaughn's car parked beside Fiona's and Rhys tries to park as close to them as he can. Both Vaughn and the girls are waiting in their respective cars, and they all get out and exchange pleasantries and hugs before going inside.

Before they can even sit down properly, Sasha is asking all kinds of invasive questions about Jonas that Rhys doesn't really want to answer, and Fiona tells the other girl to knock it off when someone comes to take their order. Rhys can tell Vaughn wants to ask about Jonas too, considering what happened on Monday. Rhys doesn't say anything, though. Waits for their food to come and makes idle conversation in the meantime.

Sasha starts back up with her questioning soon after they get their food, and Rhys lets out a sigh before reluctantly telling the table, "I think I might have to end things with Jonas."

Vaughn is obviously less shocked than the girls, but he still seems relatively surprised that Rhys has come to that decision so quickly.

"Aw, what? I liked him," Sasha whines around a mouthful of food. Rhys really didn't want to go into detail, but he knows Sasha will badger him all day if he didn't disclose all the info about why he has to break up with Jonas.

It takes him a moment to get all his thoughts together, wanting to find the right words to explain everything correctly. Instead he rushes out, "I might have slept with my boss a few times before and then again recently because he showed up at my apartment drunk and I–"

"Wait wait wait," Vaughn interrupts him halfway through his hasty explanation, turning in the booth to face Rhys, "Jack came to your apartment. Drunk. And then you _slept with him_?"

"Jesus, Vaughn! Could you announce that any louder?" Rhys ducks his head down as if everyone in the restaurant had heard Vaughn and is now looking. (No one is.) Vaughn sighs, tossing his hands up halfway in front of him in exasperation. "Sorry, sorry. I just–"

Sasha cuts off whatever Vaughn was going to say in turn for an ardent, "What the hell, Rhys?" 

"I know, I fucked everything up. I _know_. I don't need a lecture." Rhys leans back in the booth, letting out a rough exhale and crossing his arms over chest. "Can we just change the subject? Please?"

Sasha reluctantly drops it and Fiona eventually tells Rhys and Vaughn about their vacation. Rhys can tell they still want to talk about Jonas, but the realization that Rhys really does plan to end things with him is way too overwhelming and Rhys doesn't want to think about it anymore.

He _does_ think about it, later, while he walks around the mall with Vaughn and the girls; after he goes home and sits in silence in his living room, too distracted to turn on the tv, even for background sound. He thinks about it even more when he settles into bed and sleep evades him. It's well after midnight when he finally puts his headphones in and turns on some music to attempt to drown out his thoughts.

Sunday is spent alone, trying to sort out his thoughts and preparing how he's going to tell Jonas that he can't do this anymore, what he's going to say to lessen the blow. He doesn't come up with anything substantial and his stomach has worried itself into knots. He feels sick with all the anxiety by the time he goes to bed.

  


Monday is crazy. Rhys doesn't know the exact details of everything—doesn't really have the level of clearance that knowing the specifics requires—but Hyperion's CEO has announced that he's stepping down and is going to have his replacement ready in the coming month.

Monday is crazy, and that means Rhys doesn't ever get a second to have his "talk" with Jonas. (He doesn't know whether to call it breaking up or not.) It's not for a lack of trying, really. Rhys is bombarded with paperwork and emails and he runs back and forth between offices all day, doesn't even have time to break for lunch.

By Tuesday, Rhys has begun to doubt his decisions. He knows he needs to end things with Jonas, but Rhys hates breaking up with people and the man is just so kind to Rhys, he's finding it difficult to bring himself to do it. But he knows he can't keep leading Jonas on, even if nothing ever ultimately results from pursuing Jack.

Wednesday morning comes and goes, and by lunchtime, Rhys is determined. Violently anxious, but decided. He has to do this, he can't let it go on any longer. He takes more time than he'd like to text Jonas and ask if he could meet Rhys in the break room when he had a free moment. The nerves set in again when Jonas replies, "be right there (:"

Rhys sighs, mentally preparing himself, then clocks out for lunch and makes his way to the break room.

He's not at all hungry, his stomach too busy performing acrobatics, but Rhys fixes himself a cup of hot tea in hopes it'll calm the way his hands are shaking in anxiety . Rhys idly wishes that Jonas's floor and closer to Rhys's, that way Rhys wouldn't have to wait this long for Jonas to get here. (It hasn't been long at all, but his nerves say otherwise.)

Rhys takes a seat at one of the small tables in the room, trying to focus his attention anywhere but the doorway Jonas will be walking through anytime soon. When Jonas does walk through that door, the first thing he does is smile at Rhys in greeting. Then he seemingly notices how much of a nervous wreck Rhys is, and takes a seat in the chair across from him.

"Something wrong?" Jonas places his hands on the tabletop, like he wants to reach out for Rhys's own hands but doesn't know how Rhys will react. Rhys can't bring himself to return the favor. Everything that he could've prepared to say to Jonas has flown out the metaphorical window and Rhys has no idea how to broach the subject of breaking up with Jonas _to_ Jonas.

Rhys lets out a humorless laugh, keeping his gaze locked on Jonas's hands on the table. "Yeah, kind of. I–" _C'mon, Rhys, you gotta do this._ "I don't think that we, uh, should continue seeing each other."

Rhys risks a glance up at Jonas, holding his breath. For what, Rhys isn't sure. " _Oh_. Oh, um," Jonas clears his throat, slowly pulling his hands away from the table top and holding them in his lap when he leans back in his chair, "I see."

This is going about as well as Rhys had imagined.

"I don't want to be that guy, but is there.. someone else you're, um, more interested in?" It's a hard question Rhys can't exactly answer without telling Jonas everything.

"No! No, I– It's just," Rhys huffs in frustration, unable to grasp the right words. He's already lying to spare Jonas's feelings. He eventually rambles out, "There was a thing that happened not too long ago and I thought I was over it but I'm not and I just– I'm so sorry Jonas."

"Hey, no harm no foul."

"I appreciate the gesture, but not the sports metaphor," Rhys says, giving him an apologetic smile.

"Yeah, me neither. I always hated that saying." Jonas gives a weak laugh, glancing away from Rhys's direction, "I should uh– I should get back to work. I'll.. see you around, I guess."

Before Rhys can say anything else, Jonas is getting up from the table and walking to the door. The small smile he gives Rhys when he turns to look back at him nearly breaks his heart. Then he's gone and Rhys is alone in the break room again. He doesn't know whether he feels better or worse now. Better because at least he won't be fucking anything up anymore with Jonas; worse because Jonas didn't even protest, didn't rage, didn't do anything except accept it. 

Rhys thinks the worst thing is that he isn't sure if he's upset about his own feelings about the break up, or Jonas's. Doesn't know if it's because he liked Jonas or if it's because Jonas liked Rhys.

Rhys heaves a sigh and moves to rest his head in his hands. He'll need to get back to work soon, doesn't know if he'll be able to focus on it when he feels this miserable. He sits there in the break room for as long as his lunch time allows, and finally has to make himself get up when his phone starts going off with work emails.

  


Thursday and Friday are weird. Vaughn comes to eat lunch with him both days, trying to– what, console Rhys? Probably. Rhys cant decide if he'd rather be alone or not, but appreciates Vaughn's support nonetheless.

Friday after work, Rhys is home and alone. Vaughn had suggested that he could stay over at Rhys's apartment over the weekend so Rhys would have some company, but Rhys declined. He didn't want Vaughn to have to go through all that trouble just because Rhys had to break up with someone.

He thought he wanted to be alone, really, but as the night goes on Rhys finds himself forlorn and without a single drop of alcohol in his apartment to help ease whatever it is that he's feeling. He checks the time on his phone and heads to his bedroom to get dressed in some casual clothes, then proceeds to drive to a decent bar downtown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man props to vaughn for finally talking some sense into rhys, but poor sweet jonas (i say that even though i'm the one doing this to him)
> 
> for the record, breakups are so dang hard for me to write idk why, so that's probably why it sucked lmao


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE ITS JACKS POV
> 
> i've been waiting so long to do this chapter, i was so excited lmao. i hope you guys enjoy jack's side of things :P
> 
> also sorry if the tensing is weird in the beginning. i usually write in present tense but a lot of the beginning had to be in past tense but some stuff was more like "this happened and it's still happening" and it's super confusing for me and i accidentally switched between the tenses a lot so uh. feel free to point out any errors in the backstory section to me lol
> 
> also also i barely proofread this sorry

Jack had never intended to start something with Rhys. The kid was attractive, sure, and was always pleasant to work with, but Jack had enough on his plate to focus on instead. He didn't need to bog down his concentration with any attempts at relationship shit; they always ended messy for him. That was what he had told himself before, and then Jack slipped up and he ended up fucking Rhys over the desk in his office. It almost threw a metaphorical wrench in his plans, honestly, but Jack thought he had enough wits about him to not let things escalate.

Jack tried to steer clear of Rhys after that, tried to will his thoughts away from him, but to no avail. Rhys was all he could think about and it was goddamn ridiculous. Jack had thought that maybe if he flat-out ignored the younger man, it would help. He succeeded for about two weeks and then Jack had to sate his absurd urge to fuck Rhys on his office lounge. They accomplished avoiding each other as much as possible for about another week after that incident.

The next subsequent slip-up was purely coincidental, Jack likes to think. Jack had had the full intentions of talking about some important work documents when he had showed up at Rhys's apartment (don't ask how Jack knew where he lived, simply because Jack isn't even sure how he knows.) But then it was all too easy to let Rhys push him back on his creaky couch and ride him.

It caught Jack off guard the first time he initiated a kiss with Rhys, yanking the kid in by his tie and leaving him reeling when he pulled away and pretended like it hadn't surprise him too. He won't deny that maybe he'd had subconscious thoughts about it, but Jack didn't want to let it interfere with his work; he had too much to strive for. Too much that he didn't want to risk messing up just for some boy. Work, for Jack, was way more important right now than maintaining any sort of romance. 

He kissed Rhys a second time after dissing his coffee standards, and Jack had decided then and there that his plan of staying away from Rhys would more than likely end in failure.

That idea promptly went in the trash when, later that day, Rhys barged into his office and demanded to know what Jack thought he was doing. Jack knew he was talking about the kissing, but Jack hadn't known how to answer because even he hadn't known what he was doing either (still doesn't.) He couldn't give a straight answer for this reason, and Jack doesn't think he had ever seen Rhys as mad (or hurt, rather) as he was walking out of his office.

After that, it was easy to dodge Rhys because Rhys was ignoring him full-force (which was pretty impressive if you ask Jack, considering how closely they work together.) Jack thought he would simply have to forget about him completely and move past whatever he thinks he wants with Rhys. And then he had run into his subordinate in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, which was the last place Jack thought he would ever happen upon him.

Jack's plans for that night were scrapped when his daughter canceled on him and Jack wasn't going to bother making proper dinner just for himself. But Rhys was there and actually talking to him (albeit awkwardly) and Jack couldn't stop himself from inviting him over for dinner. Jack had already known it was a bad idea but he had been trying to make things more normal and having Rhys over for dinner hadn't seemed so bad.

It _wasn't_ too bad, at first. They made stilted conversation over burgers and it was as normal as they could get, probably. Until, after dinner, when Jack had cornered Rhys against the kitchen counter, which he can only describe as a dick move. He hadn't known why he did it, still isn't quite sure what came over him; that had not been his initial intentions when he invited the younger man over to his house. He hadn't initiated anything like he had wanted to, Rhys beat him to it, and Jack had let their lips lock together longer than needed before he pulls away.

Jack had wanted to tell Rhys that he was sorry that he didn't know what the fuck he was trying to do, sorry that he couldn't make up his mind on what he wanted. He was sorry that he couldn't decipher what he felt because the last time he had let himself get involved with someone, he'd lost them and things hadn't gotten better from there.

He hadn't said any of that, though. He'd let Rhys walk right out his front door without another word, no protesting, no begging him to stay. He'd had the rest of that night to himself to think about why he'd let himself fuck things up this badly so far, wondered if he'd ever be able to pick through the mess of feelings that he didn't want to acknowledge he had for the kid.

When Rhys started getting frequent visits from some relatively attractive blond stranger, Jack had pretended to not notice. Jack had pretended to not notice when he saw the two of them leave the office building together, pretended to not notice the guy dropping by Rhys's office. Jack vaguely knew that the man worked in IT and that Rhys's face lit up each time he talked to him. It made a pang of _something_ shoot through his chest every time Jack had seen them together. He'd pegged that feeling down as jealously and promptly chastised himself for even thinking like that.

Jack hasn't been exactly content to watch them together, but he'd been less ill at ease than he'd been to begin with. Rhys had obviously moved on from Jack, and Jack honestly needed to do the same. And then he catches Rhys and that blond asshole practically fucking in Rhys's office and Jack doesn't think he'd ever been so infuriated. (He doesn't know whether it's from a superior standpoint, or if he was simply jealous.) But he hadn't let on to the fact, smothered his emotions with snarky quips and feigned indifference. Rhys had thrown it all back at him and Jack had to make himself leave Rhys's office before he could have any chance to do something he'd regret.

For the next two consecutive weeks, Jack had taken his anger out on Rhys. Jack thought he'd rightfully done so, since Rhys _was_ what he was mad at, but it hadn't helped either of their problems. Rhys was still ignoring him, they were still angry with each other, and nothing was getting resolved like that; Jack should've taken note of that by then.

Jack had been so busy being pissed off at Rhys the entire two weeks that, by the following Saturday, he hadn't noticed what day it was. An anniversary of sorts that had been too life altering that he still can't forget. He hadn't realized how close it had been the entire time. Jack wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad, not noticing because he was too busy being petty; it was better than his usual distraction, but he didn't want to be angry like he always was on that day. He turns to alcohol to help keep his mind sidetracked.

He doesn't have much recollection now of what happened after that, later that night, just remembers taking Rhys to bed and _wanting it so badly_. He won't admit that it was because he had missed it, had missed _Rhys_. And Rhys had made it clear he had wanted it too, Jack has no doubts about it. But he wonders what kind of havoc he'd wreaked, leaving Rhys the next morning without so much as an excuse or apology.

Jack gets some good news that next week and, while it's not exactly what he'd been waiting for—he's still one step away from what he's been working toward ever since he was hired at Hyperion—it's enough for Jack to want to have a celebratory drink. By himself, unfortunately, because he's frankly run Rhys off completely and all Jack's friends (all two of them!) are on business trips. Not to be put off by the thought of having to celebrate and drink alone, he meanders downtown to a bar he knows has the quality stuff he desires.

The first thing Jack does is order a drink, whatever is the strongest and will make his lonely celebration feel less lonely.

He's taken up residence in a seat at the bar, leaning on his elbows on the countertop when he happens to look over and see a familiar face. A very familiar face that is cutely grinning ear to ear, cheeks flushed a pretty pink. And this familiar face seems certainly delighted to be chatted up by some asshole with obviously fake hair. Jack watches on as Rhys giggles at something the guy says and all Jack can think is whatever happened to IT guy?

Jack knows it's none of his business, but he can't help but feel a rush of defensiveness when Implants leans in close to Rhys and looks like he's whispering some pretty inappropriate things judging by the way Rhys's whole face flushes red. Jack is out of his seat and walking over to them before he can stop himself.

"Heeey, Rhysie!" Jack sidles up beside the pair, arm coming up to wrap around Rhys's shoulders. "Fancy seein' you here."

Rhys seems utterly confounded for a moment before he seems to recognize that Jack is actually standing there beside him with arm around his shoulder, and then he glares at Jack. "Jack, wha–"

"Oh, Mr. Lawrence, sir," Implants says (Jack takes note of how nervous he sounds) and it's Jack's turn to be confused because how does this douchebag know Jack's name? The man reaches out a hand nonetheless, embarrassedly wrenches it back when Jack just stares down at it like ot had personally offended him. Jack feels like he should know who this guy is, but his brain isn't turning up anything.

"Hugo Vasquez, sir. I work in–"

"Riiight, right. Yeah, I know you." Jack _vaguely_ knows him, mostly from meetings and the fact that Vasquez has been digging for Jack's job since he started. Jack doesn't say anything else, is too busy trying to edge Rhys away from Vasquez's immediate vicinity. Rhys isn't budging any, however, and Vasquez asks if they know each other.

"Obviously," Jack deadpans, because Vasquez surely knows that Rhys works just two offices down from him. Jack lets out an irritated sigh; he's getting tired of keeping up the cordiality. "Look, I'm just gonna _borrow_ him for a sec. We'll be right back."

Jack is finally able to steer Rhys away from the other man, herding him back the way Jack had come toward the bar's entrance. Which is a great feat all on its own because how drunk is Rhys, exactly? Jack is tempted to ask how many drinks he's had if he thought that Rhys would be able to give him an actual answer. Rhys is compliant with Jack leading him outside into the cool night air, only whining a little when he realizes Jack wasn't going to let him go back inside at all.

He silently ushers Rhys to Jack's car, then promptly tells Rhys they'd come back for Rhys's car tomorrow when he starts to complain. Jack doesn't know why Rhys would be alone at a bar (or letting Vasquez try and pick him up) but all Jack knows is that the kid doesn't need to be alone, and driving him home to sit in his apartment all by himself doesn't seem like the best option. Jack comes to this conclusion halfway to his own house, then figures that would be the best place for him anyway.

Rhys speaks up after a moment, but he doesn't look at Jack, just continues to stare out the window and dazedly watches the scenery pass. "You're, like, ruining everything for me, by the way."

Jack spares a glance over at the kid, trying to decipher what he means, exactly. The statement doesn't bother Jack as much as he thinks it probably should, but he figures it's simply because Rhys doesn't seem too perturbed by it either right now. (And maybe because Jack knows how ridiculous he's been these past couple of months and has an idea of just how Rhys is feeling.)

Jack doesn't respond, but Rhys continues on. He doesn't seem angry about it, is simply stating facts, if Jack is being honest with himself. 

"I don't know what your problem is." Rhys says it with a soft and humorless laugh. He's still not looking at Jack, but Jack keeps an eye on him for as long as he possibly can without swerving the car. Jack stays quiet—whether it's out of curiosity of what Rhys will say next or if it's simply because Jack is now feeling contrite about how he's been treating Rhys, Jack isn't sure. Rhys is silent for a moment and Jack thinks that that's all Rhys had to say about it, no elaborations. But then Rhys turns to him suddenly, looking absolutely irate at Jack.

"Seriously, though! What is your deal? You can't just tell me what the hell you want from me, you have to be all dodgy about it." Jack doesn't know if arguing with a drunken Rhys will get him anywhere, so he opts to not say anything.

"And you can't just be straightforward about it, you have to be a dick and– and lure me in, then what? You get cold feet and decide to not talk to me for weeks?" Rhys is pretty articulate for being as drunk as he is; Jack is sort of impressed under all the remorse he's feeling.

Rhys is quiet again after that, and Jack hears Rhys swallow thickly and glances over to see him looking out the window again. Rhys angrily scrubs the heel of his hand under his eye to get rid of the tears and Jack lets out a heavy sigh, hands tightening around the steering wheel of their own accord. He didn't need Rhys to tell him to know how much of an asshole Jack's been; Jack is fully aware of how impossible he's been acting lately.

The tension in the car is thick and the silence is nearly too much to handle, but Jack is finally pulling his car into his driveway and puts it in park. Jack sits for a moment staring at his hands on the steering wheel, mind elsewhere. Rhys lets out a soft huff and Jack's brain finally joins the rest of his body. Rhys is half-asleep in the passenger seat and Jack unbuckled his seat belt and gets out of he car to help him out.

Rhys tries pushing him away at first when Jack goes to help him, and Jack lets Rhys try to fumble his way out of the car before rolling his eyes and helping him out. Kid's too stubborn for his own good, Jack thinks, putting an arm around him to keep him steady on his feet. They make it to the front door and it's probably sheer luck that Rhys doesn't just fall over when Jack lets go of him to unlock the door. 

Jack drags him inside, to the left and into the living room, and tries his best to gently set Rhys down on the couch. Rhys flops down on the cushions regardless of how careful Jack was, and he closes his eyes when his head comes to rest against the back of the couch. Jack can't help but think of what a mess this all is, and he leaves Rhys to go into the kitchen to get him some water to drink.

Getting Rhys up the stairs is a real workout, both psychically and mentally. Multiple times, Jack considers just letting Rhys sleep it off on the couch, but then reminds himself that his couch isn't nearly as comfortable as his California King bed. The two of them continue to trudge up the stairs and when they finally reach the landing, Jack huffs in irritation and picks Rhys up in his arms and carries the drunk and sleepy man the rest of the way to Jack's bedroom.

Rhys immediately cuddles up with the fluffy comforter when Jack lays him down, making it difficult for Jack to actually get him under the blanket. Before covering him up, Jack takes off Rhys's shoes, setting them aside. Jack checks the medicine cabinet in his bathroom for painkillers then sets some and a glass of water on the bedside table for Rhys when he wakes up. When Jack turns to situate the comforter around him, Rhys is already sound asleep. 

Jack shakes his head like maybe that would help clear his thoughts. He wonders how he's going to handle all of this in the morning.

Jack doesn't bother changing clothes, suddenly too exhausted to even think about it. He grabs the throw blanket off the end of the bed and makes his way to the lounge across the room. It's certainly not as pleasant as the bed and will no doubt leave him sore in the morning, but he'd rather keep an eye on the kid just in case he needs anything.

Jack ponders why he'd even done all of this in the first place, but doesn't get to think about what "all of this" entails before he falls asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeahhhhh *finger guns*
> 
> i was really excited about getting to give jack some backstory on why he's been such a dick lmao. i know he sounds mysterious and angsty rn but i'll elaborate on his backstory later lol
> 
> i really hope you guys liked this chapter as much as i did ^^;


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah so i had to google if a step-parent could even have full custody of a step-child but google said yes so i went with it
> 
> y'all are we ready for story development (and more unnecessary angst)?! bc i sure dang am like wow
> 
> also i've never been drunk and therefore have never been hungover so i'm just going off of things i've read xD

Rhys wakes up in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar bed and wonders just how much he ended up having to drink last night. And then he promptly stops thinking because goddamn, his head hurts. It takes him a moment to even open his eyes and actually keep them open, but the room is fairly dark and the immediate pounding in Rhys's head definitely appreciates it. 

Rhys can only describe the room he's in as _huge_ ; certainly bigger than any bedroom he's ever been in, anyway. The walls are a dark taupe and heavy curtains are drawn in front of both of the room's windows, casting the room in an almost-complete darkness. There's a nightstand next to the bed and on the wall across from him, there's a dresser and lounge. A lounge which currently has a snoring Jack sprawled across it. Rhys guesses that answers the question of whose room he's in.

He's tempted to curl back up in Jack's fluffy white comforter because, frankly, it is the most comfortable thing he's ever experienced. But the splitting headache he has demands his attention and Rhys grabs the painkillers and water from the nightstand Jack must have put there for him at some point. He can't think much over the pounding in his head and Jack snoring none too quietly, but he tries his best to remember what the hell even happened last night.

He recalls actually driving to the bar, ordering a couple of drinks at first. Rhys physically shudders when he remembers Vasquez of all people buying him multiple drinks, surely in the hopes of taking him home for the night. Rhys supposes he should thank Jack for diverting that disaster. Then he remembers all the stuff he said to Jack in the car, and he isn't sure whether he's angry because he actually told Jack those things or if he's relieved because he did. He doesn't remember Jack responding at all, doesn't know if that's a good or bad thing.

Rhys jerks his head up (and wow that was a bad idea) when he hears the rustling of a blanket and watches as Jack stretches to the best of his ability along the chaise lounge. Rhys doesn't say anything to him, waits for Jack to say something first; Rhys wouldn't even know what to say. Should he thank Jack for essentially taking care of him last night, thank Jack for rescuing him from what could have been a regretful night with Vasquez? Or possibly even apologize for all those things he said in the car, no matter how true they were.

Jack's sleepy mumble of "g' morning" breaks Rhys's train of thought and he continues to stare at the other man, who is divesting himself of the throw blanket he'd been covered up with. Rhys doesn't reply, shifting his gaze down to where his hands are tangling up in the comforter when Jack looks his way.

What's worse is that Jack doesn't say anything more, just groans when several joints pop when he gets up from the lounge. Jack tosses his blanket at the foot of his bed and Rhys watches on as he sighs and makes his way to the adjoining bathroom. Rhys figures he would have at least wanted to talk about last night first, why Rhys was out getting drunk in the first place, but Jack seems content enough to take a shower without properly speaking to Rhys. That bothers Rhys more than it probably should.

"Uh, should we maybe talk about last night?" Rhys calls after Jack, hoping he can hear him over the sounds of the water running in the shower. Jack's response echoes throughout the bathroom on in to the bedroom. "It can wait," he pauses, then adds as an afterthought, "come join me if you want."

Rhys feels a little indignant at the remark, but there was no flirtatious undertone to it, simply Jack offering to let Rhys shower with him. Completely normal. Rhys opts to stay where he is in Jack's bed, wondering how exactly his life had gotten to the point where his boss had the opportunity to save him from binge drinking then offer to shower together the next morning.

Jack is out of the shower in no time. Or maybe Rhys was really that deep in thought that he hadn't realized how much time had gone by. Either way, Jack is traipsing out of his bathroom clad in nothing but a towel, and Rhys has to stop himself from staring (there's nothing new he hasn't seen before, anyway.) Jack is quiet while he searches his dresser for clothes, then stops and seems to think for a moment before grabbing an extra t-shirt and flannel pajama bottoms and tosses them at Rhys. Rhys hadn't realized until then that both of them must've slept in their clothes from last night.

Despite being now consciously uncomfortable in his casual clothes, Rhys doesn't move to change into the pajamas Jack had thrown to him. Instead, he stares at a fixed spot on the carpet underneath Jack's feet while the older man changes. Rhys is broken from his reverie when Jack suddenly takes a seat on the edge of the bed, staying silent before asking, "You wanted to talk about last night, huh?"

"I–" Rhys doesn't know what to say. He doesn't know if he wants to tell Jack the reason why he was out drinking was because he broke up with Jonas, which was partially Jack's fault. Doesn't know whether he should tell Jack that he realized he _loves_ Jack. "I'm...sorry, about what I said to you last night. But I'm not gonna lie and say none of it was true. Because it was, uh– it was pretty true."

Jack makes a face, like he was expecting that but hadn't thought Rhys would actually say it. Jack lets out a heavy sigh, not meeting Rhys's eyes. "Look, I– I know I've been a dick, alright? Not my proudest moment– well, _months_. Not my proudest months at all, really."

Rhys turns his gaze down, stares at the wad of pajamas in his lap. He isn't sure how to feel now that Jack is owning up to his actions, that Jack actively knows what he's been doing and hasn't done anything about it until now. Rhys doesn't want to admit it, but he realizes he's honestly been doing the same to Jack. Ignoring him, sleeping with people just to spite him in Rhys's mind. Jonas was initially all just to make Jack jealous, for fuck's sake.

"I–" is all Rhys gets out before Jack cuts him off. "Hold up, I'm on a roll here."

Jack clears his throat, then does it again because the first time was obviously insufficient. "I'm admittedly not good at this stuff, okay? And– and maybe that's why I have an ex-wife and a daughter who doesn't want to see me, I dunno–"

And Rhys is incredibly surprised at that because that's probably the realest thing Jack has ever said to Rhys about himself. Rhys shifts his eyes up to look at Jack, frowns because isn't looking at him anymore. "Jack–"

Jack glances at him again when he hears his name, holding his hands up in front of him like maybe that would stop Rhys from whatever he was about to say. Jack seems determined at this point, and Rhys idly wonders just how long Jack has wanted to say all this, wonders _what_ , exactly, he wants to say. "Now, hold on, let me finish."

Jack is finally looking at him again, and it's almost too intense for Rhys. Rhys isn't sure how he's done it, but Jack has rolled all of his emotions into one facial expression. Rhys keeps his gaze however, because Rhys feels like if he looks away now, Jack might stop talking to him.

"I'm superbly bad at this, but I'm trying and–" Jack pauses, and Rhys can hear his throat click when he swallows. Rhys had never thought he'd ever see Jack Lawrence be _nervous_ about anything. "And I want to try, with _you_ and–"

The confession takes Rhys by surprise; he hadn't expected to hear those words from Jack, never even imagined that Jack could actually _want_ Rhys like that. It makes his chest feel tight and he can feel the tears threatening to surface but he's smiling like an idiot because those words are all Rhys has wanted to hear. "Jack–"

"Interrupt me one more time, cupcake–" but Jack doesn't get to finish his threat because Rhys is suddenly kissing him, fingers grasping at the fabric of his t-shirt and the other hand at the back of Jack's neck. Jack is a little tense at first, probably more shocked than anything, but he eventually leans into the kiss and Rhys sighs in content against the man's lips.

The kiss doesn't last very long. Jack pulls back after a moment and opens his mouth like he still wants to speak, and Rhys lets out a soft laugh. Instead of talking more, Jack breathes an exhausted sigh and moves to rest his head on Rhys's shoulder. Rhys can hear the quiet disbelieving chuckle Jack gives, can feel the man's lips quirking in a smile against his neck.

"You're so difficult," Rhys mumbles, but it's full of endearment and _finally_. Jack grumbles against his neck, "I know."

There's no way that he's going to let these past months go yet, despite Jack knowing how he'd been acting and finally owning up to it. Rhys has a deep-set hurt from it all that can't be curbed simply because Jack finally admitted those things to Rhys. But he's willing to work on it if Jack is, and that's really all Rhys can hope for.

"You have to start talking to me like a normal person, alright?" Jack grumbles again at Rhys's question, but nods his head in compliance. Rhys rolls his eyes at the response, but grins nonetheless, and moves to pull Jack into another kiss.

  


Most of Rhys's morning is spent in Jack's bed. Which is not as sexy as it sounds because Rhys is still hungover and therefore still feels like shit.

He gets multiple borderline creepy messages from Vasquez despite Rhys not remembering ever giving the man his number. Jack eventually snatches the phone from Rhys's hands and promptly tells Vasquez to fuck off. (Work is going to be so weird when Monday comes around, Rhys laments.)

Jack is essentially a leech, both in a metaphorical and literal sense. The older man is practically suctioned to Rhys's body with the way they're curled up in Jack's bed, but he also keeps leaving hickeys wherever he can get to on Rhys. Rhys eventually grumbles about it, turning around in Jack's embrace to face him. Jack gives him a keen grin and Rhys rolls his eyes, running his fingertips through the graying streak in his hair, which prompts the question–

"How old are you, anyway?"

"Aren't you, like, not supposed to ask people that?" Jack looks less offended than he sounds and Rhys shrugs the best he can in his lying position. Jack grunts at the response, then says, "Old enough to get gray hair, I guess."

"That still doesn't exactly answer the question.

"Iiiiii'm pretty sure it does, pumpkin."

Rhys smirks at him, humming like he's regarding Jack for a moment before saying, "So you're that old, huh?" Rhys knows what he's doing, gearing Jack up to make Rhys absolutely eat those words; Rhys knows Jack can't resist. And Rhys knows he's succeeded when both of Jack's eyebrows raise in surprise at Rhys's response. Then Jack grins and he pins Rhys to the bed in one fluid motion. "You're gonna regret that comment, cupcake."

"Yeah? You gonna make me, old man?"

Jack makes him come twice seemingly just to prove his point.

  


It's only after Rhys gets his breathing under control and the afterglow wears off, that he notices the thought still gnawing at him; Jack's old enough to have an ex-wife and a daughter, at least. Rhys voices these thoughts finally, when Jack seems to be dozing off from his position on Rhys's shoulder, and Jack only groans when Rhys brings it up. Rhys figures that's his way of dismissing the subject.

"What's her name?" Rhys murmurs, half-hoping Jack didn't hear him, but half-hoping he did because Rhys really wants to know the answer. "Your daughter, I mean."

Jack is quiet for a moment, like he's debating whether it's worth it to appease Rhys's curiosity and talk about his life for once. Jack eventually lets out a soft sigh, moving up to lean on his side next to Rhys. "Her name's Angel."

Rhys can't help the smile that spreads across his face. "That's sweet." Jack absently nods his head in agreement, lips quirked in a small thoughtful small.

"Yeah she is– it is. The name." Jack clears his throat, like maybe that would help supress the little emotion he'd shown Rhys.

"It's okay to have feelings, y'know." Rhys means it as a light-hearted comment, honestly. But Jack tenses, then he's suddenly sitting up in bed and pulling on his pajama pants from the floor. Rhys immediately pushes himself up to a sitting position, watches as Jack redresses himself.

"Jack, what did I– what is it?" Rhys knew it would be a long-shot to finally get Jack to open up to him, but Rhys had been hoping for a little less defiance on Jack's part, at least. But here the man is, sitting on the edge of his bed and brooding because Rhys told him it was perfectly acceptable to have emotions. "Jack, seriously. Talk to me."

Jack lets out a humorless laugh, shaking his head. Jack doesn't say anything, however, and Rhys can't exactly pretend he's disappointed at how predictable that is. "Jack, you're the one that keeps pushing me away–"

Jack turns on him unexpectedly, animosity hindering his every feature. "You don't know me!"

"How can I? You won't talk to me about anything!" Rhys doesn't mean to raise his voice, but Jack initiated it and Rhys is just so _angry_ with Jack. He's tired of arguing with the man and disregarding what is obviously bothering Jack and making him act like this.

"You really want to know what's wrong?" Jack snarls out, and Rhys doesn't think he's ever seen Jack this furious about something before.

"My first wife got sick and _died_ , left me with our three year old daughter I certainly couldn't raise by myself. I got remarried when I obviously shouldn't have because Angel needed a mother and I was a shitty father. But I don't 'open up' to people, so my second wife wanted a divorce and I signed all my rights to Angel away to her because she cared about her and I knew I couldn't take care of a little kid on my own when I could barely take care of my goddamn self!"

Jack abruptly takes a shuddering breath and Rhys is almost to shocked to realize that Jack is on the verge of tears. Almost doesn't realize that he himself is too. "Jack–"

"You should leave." Jack says it so quietly, so calmly, that Rhys doesn't make a move. Then Jack is throwing his arm up to gesture towards the bedroom door, yelling, "Get the hell out of my house, Rhys!"

Rhys's bottom lip quivers, and he swallows thickly and clenches his jaw to make it fucking _stop_. Rhys all but scrambles out of Jack's bed to find his clothes from the night before. He dresses in a rush to get out of Jack's bedroom because Jack seems like the kind of person to physically take his anger out on whatever he can and Rhys doesn't want to be there when he does (even if Rhys knows Jack would never hurt him like that.)

When Rhys is finally outside Jack's front door, he calls Vaughn because Rhys knows he won't mind coming to pick him up on short notice. Rhys can barely get out Jack's address to his friend without his voice cracking, but Vaughn doesn't ask questions and tells Rhys he's on his way.

Vaughn looks infuriated when he pulls into Jack's driveway, but Rhys bustles into the car as quickly as possible and tells Vaughn to take him home. Vaughn's anger seems to dissipate when he sees how upset Rhys is. "Rhys, what–?"

"Please, just drive, Vaughn." And that's what Vaughn does, backing out of Jack's driveway and driving away from Jack's sprawling suburban neighborhood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i literally almost died while writing this because i write all my fics on the gmail app okay? and my wifi has been shitty sure alright. so i wrote the first 2k and then i hit the back button and assume it saves all my shit but apparently it didn't and i go back in and i seriously die because like i lost a good chunk of fic i am livid and then i close the app like that'll help and then i go back in and even more shit is gone like. but thank god for my fucking wonderful brain remembering word for word what all i wrote.
> 
> so anyways i put my literal tears into this fic just so you guys know. i'm also never writing on anything that needs internet to save again i s2g


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bless, i actually updated
> 
> i am terribly sorry for taking so long on this chapter guys. my mind has just been elsewhere and kinda jaded with fandoms in general, and i haven't really been feeling the best mentally
> 
> in other news, i made tassiter the ceo that stepped down so idk do with that information what you will i guess. henderson is probably gonna be the new ceo.
> 
> _anyway_
> 
> rhys sleeps so fucken much in this fic like someone tally up how many times he's taken a nap

Vaughn insists on staying with Rhys after he drives Rhys home and he doesn't leave any room for protesting. Rhys doesn't think he would want to be alone anyway, needs something to distract himself so he doesn't think about how angry Jack had been earlier. How angry he'd been at _Rhys_ , when he was only trying to help Jack. That's what Rhys thought anyway, that he was helping Jack. Jack has never been a talker though (about his _feelings_ ; he would talk about everything else) and Rhys should've known Jack would blow up like he did.

Rhys can't stop being distressed over the fact that work is going to be so awkward come Monday.

Rhys knows Vaughn doesn't want to leave him, but a few movie-filled hours later, Vaughn informs him that he's going to go pick up Rhys's car from the bar. Rhys offers to go, but Vaughn rejects the idea and tells Rhys he texted Yvette to help and he's going to go pick her up. Vaughn tells him to get some rest in the meantime and makes Rhys swallow down a couple more painkillers before leaving the apartment. Rhys isn't sure what he did to deserve such amazing friends. 

Rhys doesn't know what to do with himself while Vaughn is gone. He can lament all he wants to himself about Jack, but that honestly wouldn't get him anywhere. Rhys wishes he could just _apologize_ somehow, but he doesn't know what he would even say, what he would even be apologizing for. He'd only been trying to help and Jack turned on him. Rhys really doesn't blame the man, though; Jack just has issues he needs to work through. (Rhys wishes Jack would let him _help_ him work through those issues, however.)

Rhys's head is pounding again and he isn't sure if it's simply because he really did have that much to drink last night (surely a hangover couldn't last this long, right?) or if he's just exhausted. He eventually figures it's the latter when he can no longer keep his eyes open without them burning, and reluctantly takes Vaughn's advice and curls up on the couch to take a nap.

Rhys is startled awake by the sound of his apartment door closing. When he finally brings himself to pry his eyes open, Rhys finds that the living room is mostly dark now, save for a small lamp giving off soft, dim light. Vaughn is hanging a set of keys on the hook by his door, and Rhys idly watches as he promptly toes his shoes off. Yvette isn't with him, and Rhys feels a little bad that he's grateful for it; he doesn't think he could handle Yvette bitching to Rhys about Jack.

Vaughn folds his jacket over the barstool at the counter, dropping an overnight bag to the floor beside it, and turns towards the living room. "Oh, hey. I didn't wake you up, did I..?"

Rhys gives him a small smile, moving to stretch his aching joints. "Kinda, but it's okay."

Vaughn mumbles an apology before closing the distance between them and offering Rhys a small plastic grocery bag. A curious glance inside reveals that Vaughn really is the best friend in the universe because he went and bought Rhys an abundance of candy.

"I uh, wasn't sure what you'd want so I just kind of grabbed as much as I could hold."

Rhys laughs at that, the image of Vaughn struggling to hold all the candy in the middle of the store aisle coming to mind. Rhys moves to empty the bag onto the coffee table, taking inventory of what all Vaughn had bought and crumbling up the bag, tossing it to the side.

"Thank you," Rhys says, turning to look at the shorter man still standing to the side. "C'mon, get comfy and we'll binge watch Revenge." 

Vaughn lets out a soft chuckle, padding back over to where he'd left his bag. He retreats to the bathroom for a moment to change and Rhys gets everything ready on the tv. 

It's times like these that Rhys is so very grateful to have a friend like Vaughn.

  


Monday, as in accordance with his life recently, is as awkward as Rhys had expected. Or maybe it's Rhys that's awkward because no one else seems to be affected but him. He doesn't personally see Jack the whole day, the man stuck in meetings practically since he walked through the doors. Rhys knows this because Vaughn has been acting as Rhys's informant and keeping tabs on what Jack is doing. (Rhys doesn't know if it's a ploy to avoid Jack as much as possible in case he's still angry or if Rhys is simply curious as to what his boss is doing.)

Tuesday isn't any better, relating to Jack anyway. Vaughn brings him a pretty damn good chai tea latte when he arrives, and they go out to eat lunch together with Yvette during their breaks. Rhys isn't sure how much Yvette knows from Vaughn about the situation with Jack since Rhys hasn't told her anything, but she surprisingly doesn't ask questions or complain about Jack like Rhys thought she might. Rhys is eternally grateful, even if she _does_ ask (very intrusive) questions about the whole Vasquez fiasco at the bar.

Wednesday, Jonas turns up in Rhys's office. Rhys can definitely say he hadn't been expecting that one at all, what with how he'd ended things. But Jonas just gives him that vibrant smile and hands him a small styrofoam coffee cup from the break room. Jonas propositions that they go eat lunch together, that he just wants to talk. Rhys almost declines the offer, he doesn't want to waste Jonas's time. Jonas makes a compelling argument, however, coaxing Rhys with "we can go to that really good sushi place". Rhys really is weaker than he thought because he immediately agrees.

The first thing Jonas says to him when they sit down is, "I'm not mad at you, y'know." Which was certainly unexpected. He'd been hoping that Jonas wouldn't absolutely hate Rhys for leading him on the way he did, but Rhys was anticipating a little less kindness. (That just wasn't how Jonas was though, he seemed the kind of guy to be nice to everyone no matter what.)

Jonas takes Rhys's shocked pause as it is and continues, "I mean, I was a little hurt at first. But I understand where you were coming from and I don't see any reason why we still can't just be friends."

Jonas is still smiling at him and Rhys seriously can't believe how amazing Jonas really is. Rhys went and broke the guy's heart and here he is trying to form a friendship. Jonas continues to pleasantly surprise Rhys.

Lunch with Jonas puts Rhys in a good mood despite having to return to work afterward and having to face the prospect of seeing Jack at some point. Rhys knows he can't avoid his boss forever, that he should be the bigger person and simply see how Jack is doing, but that doesn't stop Rhys from eluding Jack as much as Rhys can manage. Rhys would bet anything that Jack is the kind of guy that needs his own time and space to think through things, and Rhys doesn't want to risk messing it up.

He's not mad at Jack anymore, doesn't really think that he was in the first place. Hurt, maybe, but certainly not angry. His past obviously continues to be a sensitive subject for the man; Rhys would never pretend to know what he's been through, but he definitely understands the prospect of closing oneself off emotionally to avoid getting hurt that terribly again. 

Rhys hopes _Jack_ isn't mad at him anymore.

The rest of the week and on into the weekend are hopelessly normal and mostly devoid of anything note-worthy. Jack finally came to seek Rhys out, only to talk about work. Which was fine with Rhys, honestly. It gave Rhys the chance to see how the older man was doing (since Rhys was apparently too much of a coward to see for himself without prompting.)

Vaughn continues to be Rhys's everlasting support system, and even Jonas has taken to throwing some encouragements at him, even if he didn't know about Jack. Yvette is, well, Yvette; she has finally gotten to a comfortable point where she trash-talks Jack at lunch, but only if it's for Rhys's benefit, just to make him laugh. Rhys knows they all realize how much Rhys truly cares for the man he's lamenting over; if it were anyone else, Rhys would have stopped pursuing them by now.

  


Work continues as normal the next week, which was to be expected. It's torturous not having Jack actually talk to Rhys about anything other than work-related issues, but Rhys can get over it as long as Jack simply talks to him. Every time Jack comes to him, Rhys can tell he's holding back, obviously wants to talk about everything but work. But, like Rhys, he seems to be unable to bring it all up; whether it's out of cowardice or sheer embarrassment, Rhys isn't sure.

Rhys eventually gets to a point during the week where he desperately needs to talk to Jack about what had happened; they obviously can't keep dancing around it forever (though Rhys doesn't doubt Jack's ability to do so.) What's surprising is that Jack the one that finds his way to Rhys first. His resolve has seemingly been worn down and he turns up at Rhys's doorstep after work on Friday night.

Jack doesn't offer any real greeting, just stands awkwardly in front of Rhys when he opens the door like it wasn't even his voluntary decision to come here in the first place. Rhys feels like he doesn't know how to approach Jack anymore, how to simply talk to him like before (though, they always ignored each other before too.)

Rhys invites Jack in, but the older man says, "I'm not gonna be here for long."

Rhys can tell he wants to get something off his chest and it's painful to watch Jack suffer to find what he really wants to say in the bioluminescent lighting of the apartment complex hallway. Without considering whatever consequences there may be, Rhys hesitantly grabs Jack's hand and pulls him inside his apartment.

Once inside with the door closed, Jack lets put an exhausted sigh and runs a hand through his usually pristine hair. "Look, I– there's a lot more going on than me not being able to handle feelings, okay? Not just _life_ , but work stuff too and it's–" Jack let's out another sigh, and Rhys worries for a moment if Jack means he's struggling to keep his job or what else he could have possible meant.

It takes Jack a moment to gather his thoughts, but he finally says, "There's gonna be a company party next weekend–" and that's the first Rhys has heard of it. "Downtown. It's short notice since everyone has been scrambling around after Tassiter stepped down. I– we can talk after the party, okay? I just need to concentrate on work in the meantime."

This is the most willingly reasonable Rhys has ever experienced Jack being, to be quite honest. He seems like he'd rather die than reveal all this to Rhys, but Rhys gives a small smile because at least he's trying. Next weekend isn't that far away anyway, especially if Jack is saying that they can finally, _hopefully_ try their hand at whatever it is that they're trying to have with each other. ( _Love, a relationship, you dummy_ his brain supplies.)

Rhys smiles softly, can't stop himself from bringing his hand up to cradle Jack's cheek in his palm. "Okay," is all Rhys says, but it seems to be all Jack needed because the man is visibly less tense after that and allows Rhys to press a kiss to the edge of his mouth.

Rhys knows that's all Jack came to say and there's no stopping him from going back home now that he's relatively placated, but Rhys wants him to stay anyway. That would counteract what they just discussed, however, and Rhys knows Jack wouldn't agree. So he refrains from asking, and watches as Jack smiles just that little bit and turns to leave.

Despite Jack still not choosing to be with Rhys just yet, Rhys can't help the crazy warmth that spreads through his chest; Jack is definitely doing better than he had been in the talking-about-feelings department (even if that had involved Jack yelling at him and kicking Rhys out of his house.) Rhys is just happy Jack came by tonight. Three and a half months of dancing around the fact that Jack and he felt something for each other, and _it's about damn time_ Rhys thinks.

For the first time in a while, Rhys doesn't stress about Jack; he has a feeling that things are finally turning out in his favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm really sorry this chapter was so short but tHAT'S BECAUSE the next chapter is technically gonna be the last chapter, apart from an epilogue i'm still kinda on the fence about (i'll prolly end up doing it tho bc i'm weak and i have a cute idea lmao) and there was barely enough things to talk about in this before the next chapter so. yeah.
> 
> regardless, things are finally going right yay xD


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hoo boi this is a long chapter (about 5700 words)
> 
> i'm pretty sure i had the song issues by julia michaels on repeat while i wrote this lmao
> 
> anyways, i'm sorry it took me more than the usual 2 weeks to write this ;-; but uhh i hope the length of this chapter makes up for the wait
> 
> as i was writing this i realized i kinda made the party waaaay too soon and had nothing else to write about before it, so the beginning of the chapter is a little slow and short compared to the party bit

Rhys had spent the entire weekend wondering what exactly Jack wanted from him, and what Jack was going to allow himself to have. It was probably debatable, but the older man could have easily allowed himself to have this one thing with Rhys; it was obvious they both wanted it (Rhys was still trying to wrap his mind around what exactly "it" constitutes as.) But Rhys has nothing more to do than wait for, hopefully, Jack's go-ahead after the company party.

Vaughn doesn't believe Rhys when Rhys tells him on their lunch break on Monday that Jack had come by his apartment Friday night. Vaughn seems angry at first, and who wouldn't be after he'd had to pick his friend up from someone's house because that someone had kicked him out. Rhys has to assure Vaughn that Jack was at least apologetic about it and they were going to talk after the party this coming weekend. 

"Well that's the first I've heard of it," Vaughn says, picking through the remains of his meal on the plate in front of him.

Rhys gives him an exasperated expression and laughs, replying, "That's what I said!"

"I'm just glad Jack finally got over his shit. Y'know, he really pissed me off–"

"I know, I know," Rhys interrupts, rushing to defend Jack because it had just been a misunderstanding when it really came down to it, right? And Rhys tells Vaughn as much. "He just– He's not an emotionally open person, I guess. Just doesn't know how to _express feelings_." 

Vaughn chuckles at Rhys's combined hand gestures then sighs. Rhys has to stop himself from physically making Vaughn stop picking at his food. "I guess, but if he–"

"Vaughn, c'mon man." Rhys gives him a small, genuine smile. He knows Vaughn is only looking out for him, and Rhys knows Vaughn would do anything to keep Rhys out of harm's way. "Everything's starting to work out, I promise."

Vaughn makes some unsure grumbling noises but seems more complacent nonetheless. Now, if only Rhys could convince _Jack_ that everything was going to be fine, Rhys would be content.

  


Rhys doesn't see much of Jack for the next few days. He assumes Jack is busy in meetings (and apparently planning for a whole damn company party no one knew anything about.) Rhys keeps to himself, mainly just so he doesn't risk disrupting this pleasant calm he has going with Jack; Rhys has had enough with the back and forth with him and would probably do about anything to keep it peaceful between them.

Rhys thinks a lot about the party—more what would happen after, rather than what it was for (he automatically assumed it's basically a farewell party for Tassiter and a welcome party for whoever is taking his place.) (Rhys would complain about how shoddy the company is at informing its workers, but when the time is right, he supposes...)

The office seems to get a little more hectic as the weekend grows nearer. Rhys would never doubt Hyperion's ability to hold off on information and announce something big just days before it's actually due to happen; they like to watch their workers scramble, Rhys thinks. Nevertheless, the entire office is buzzing with excitement with the news, and Rhys finds himself even more eager than before. This is his real shot at having something with Jack (Rhys just hopes that Jack will let himself be happy for once.)

The reality that Jack might reject Rhys is definitely a prospect Rhys dwells on way too much. Jack didn't seem like he wanted to back off but he is usually unpredictable in most aspects, and that's what worries Rhys the most. Even so, he reminds himself that they have been through too much for Jack to just let their relationship fall out.

Rhys still doesn't see Jack for the rest of the week, but he spots Jonas on his way out on Friday. Rhys has to stop himself from going over to him because there's a blue-haired girl Rhys knows from marketing talking to Jonas and Rhys is surprised by how happy that makes him because he hasn't seen Jonas smile like that in a while.

  


Rhys has the entirety of Saturday morning and afternoon to worry about what the hell he was even going to wear to the company party. Hyperion is fairly notorious for throwing big formal bashes and Rhys doesn't even think he has the right kind of suit for that. He texts Vaughn after breakfast and asks what he plans on wearing, but Vaughn has the same amount of fashion sense as Rhys does—which is to say, nonexistent—and Vaughn tells him he'll be right over so they can low-key panic together. Rhys turns on his stereo in the meantime, like maybe some montage-esque music will help him sift through his _fancier_ suit options in his closet more efficiently.

He doesn't hear when Vaughn enters the apartment but his friend knocks on his ajar bedroom door before coming in. Rhys has several different suit jackets, button-downs, and ties spread across his bed.

"I didn't know you actually owned this many suits. You seem to wear the same ones every week," Vaughn says, laughing at the messy assortment of clothing laid out.

"Ha-ha, very funny." Rhys rolls his eyes. He pulls out a black waistcoat from his closet, then promptly shoves it back in. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

In hindsight, Rhys probably should've been spending his free time for the past week figuring this shit out, but now is better than never he supposes. Vaughn makes his rounds around the bed to look over everything Rhys has laid out. He lightly runs his fingers over a smooth black button-down, finally speaking up again.

"How fancy is this thing gonna be, anyway?"

Rhys let's out a sound akin to a groan and a sigh, trying and failing to find any of his formal dress pants. "No clue, but I'm gonna guess 'pretty fancy' is the main idea."

Vaughn makes a noncommittal noise in response, grabs a silky electric blue tie to try to match with the black shirt. Vaughn wrinkles his nose at the pair and throws them back on the bed. Rhys lifts an eyebrow at him, asking, "What, you don't like it?"

"I think we can do better." Vaughn says, humming in thought before shrugging and clearing off a spot for himself to take a seat on the bed. "Do you know what Jack's wearing?"

Rhys has a surge of internal panic; he hasn't thought about that, hasn't seen Jack all week to even ask about it. He doesn't know if he and Jack are even on the right kind of terms to ask each other that sort of question. Rhys doesn't answer but he's sure Vaughn gets the idea when Rhys sighs and falls backwards on his bed on top of all the clothes.

There's a hanger digging into his side and when Rhys begrudgingly elects to ignore it, Vaughn moves to tug it out from under him. An aqua blue dress shirt accompanies it, and Vaughn holds it out in front of himself with a thoughtful look. He doesn't say anything as he gets up from his spot and pads over to the other side of the bed to grab a satiny black tie and matching jacket. He tosses it all on top of Rhys seemingly to display it efficiently, and Rhys makes a grumbled sound in annoyance when the hanger whacks him in the face.

"What're you doing?" Rhys asks, batting away the metal hanger hook. Vaughn doesn't respond at first, stroking at his beard in thought. Rhys is tempted to tell him he looks like a villain or something, but then his friend speaks up.

"I think you should wear it."

Rhys glances down at the clothes and makes a face. "You want me to wear a turquoise shirt to a company party?"

"I would say it's more aqua than turquoise, but yes. You've probably worn weirder." Rhys has the decency to at least feign indignity at the jab, but ultimately shrugs it off because it was probably true.

Rhys finally sits up, taking each piece of clothing and layering them over one another to see how it would all look. It's not too awful, would probably look even better on. Rhys decides _what the hell_ and figures Vaughn is envisioning it much better than Rhys is; he trusts Vaughn's judgement (he thinks, anyways.)

  


And that's how Rhys ended up wearing a turquoise ( _"It's aqua, dude!" "I don't think it matters_ dude _!"_ ) button-up to his company party. Not that it was incredibly noticeable or flashy, Rhys is keeping his suit jacket buttoned in the meantime, and the tie probably draws away from it anyway.

Vaughn had decided against the commonplace black tux and settled for a soft gray suit and a forest green bowtie in place of a regular tie. It fits him, Rhys thinks.

Once they get to the venue the party is being held at, Rhys is definitely enamored with the building. He can't remember what it usually functions as, but it's a huge three-story monster of a building and Hyperion has rented out the entire ballroom on the second floor.

They quickly find Yvette at the open bar fidgeting with her beaded two-piece dress. She gives the two of them a beguiling smirk when she spots them making their way to her, saying, "I'm surprised you guys are on time."

"Rude," Rhys scoffs in amusement. He's usually the reason they're late to these sorts of things (he can't help that he wants to look good, it's a problem.)

Rhys orders himself a drink, then orders Vaughn one and shoves it in Vaughn's hands when Rhys notices the shorter man looking around anxiously. Vaughn accepts it graciously without a word, clinking his glass against Rhys's in cheers.

Rhys feels a little less out of place with their atypical clothing choices now that they're actually at the party. It may be less actual "party" and more "formal company event", but it's certainly a colorful affair. There's women in sleek, vibrant-colored dresses and the men seem to have taken notes.

Rhys watches as a group of dainty champagne flutes clink together in the air as there's a round of cheers and that's when he spots Jack. Jack, who looks _damn_ good, if Rhys is being totally honest with himself. His suit seems to be either new or rarely worn because it looks absolutely perfect, and the single gold rose pinned to his jacket lapel matches the same silky gold of his tie.

Rhys isn't sure if he should continue admiring from afar or risk going over to him. He ultimately decides what harm could it do to simply say hello to his boss, and straightens his tie before starting on his way over to Jack.

The ballroom scenery and decor is light and sparkling and elegant, and matches well with the airy flow of the party around them. Everything is champagne-colored and it looks like something you'd only see on tv. Rhys focuses on all this rather than Jack, his whole body surging with anxiety and a growing unsureness the closer he gets to Jack.

Jack is still talking to a few upper-dogs that Rhys only knows by passing; he knows they're the important ones that make it into high-clearance office meetings and whatnot, at least. Rhys stands by as the conversation dissipates and the rest of the people fade out into the party. (Rhys knows Hyperion's new CEO is in the building somewhere and those people are going to go find him and see how much they can suck up to him, Rhys is sure.)

Jack greets him with his usual, characteristic grin, like he's actually excited Rhys came to see him. Jack doesn't say anything though, like maybe he's waiting on Rhys to have the first word, but Rhys doesn't actually know what to say, isn't sure what he had been thinking he'd say when he got over here.

Jack ignores his silence however, and takes the right lapel of Rhys's jacket, tasking himself with pinning a pretty gold rose to it. Rhys notices it matches the same one adorning Jack's own jacket.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Rhys isn't mad, is more amused and surprised than anything. "I thought you said we weren't going to talk until after the party."

Jack gives him that trademark smirk of his and says, "This isn't talking, cupcake." He holds his arm out for Rhys to take. "No one said you couldn't be my eye-candy for the evening."

Rhys takes his arm and lets out a soft laugh so genuine and pleased it honestly catches him off-guard. He hadn't exactly expected Jack to be quite as amenable tonight as he seems to be. Rhys had been expecting the brooding man he'd gotten at his doorstep the week before. Rhys hopes Jack's good mood is a sign of how the night will go.

Rhys stays by Jack's side most of the night, only veering off to catch up with Vaughn and Yvette and to get drink refills. He has a listless anxiety that won't go away, though. He keeps thinking about when Jack is finally going to talk to him—was he serious when he meant after the party, or is he going to suddenly get moody and spring it on him? The thoughts keep him on his toes all night.

Jack parades him around like Rhys is a part of his personal collection, and it wouldn't bother Rhys as much if they were on better, clearer terms than they were. But as it stands, Rhys still has no exact idea what Jack wants from him, even if he does have high hopes for it.

In the end, it's Rhys who finally decides he's had enough of Jack's cordiality and acting like they were on perfect terms with each other. He abruptly breaks off from Jack's side while he's busy talking with a group of schmoozing assholes and walks the short distance to the balcony on the east side of the room.

Rhys is already walking out onto the patio when he hears Jack hastily excuse himself. It's not like he hadn't expected Jack to come after him, but Rhys also _did_ expect Jack to not come after him. Rhys sighs and rests against the balcony handrail, looking over the cityscape as he listens to Jack's quickening footsteps behind him.

"What's up, kitten?" Jack asks, like he's actually confused as to why Rhys had left. Rhys doesn't think he's resented the nickname Jack gives him more than he does now.

Rhys sighs again, not looking at Jack as the man comes up beside him to lean against the balcony railing as well. "What are you doing, Jack?"

"IIIIII'm trying to figure out why you left, _Rhys_."

Rhys let's out a humorless laugh at that. He knows Jack is well aware why Rhys walked away. Rhys doesn't know whether the two of them feigning ignorance at the fact they need to talk is better than actually ignoring each other in general or not.

"You know the answer to that," Rhys says. He finally turns to look at Jack, whose eyes are solely focused on Rhys and his eyebrows furrow in– what, agitation? Confusion?

"I've been at your side all night, and we're still ignoring each other, Jack." Rhys can't look at him anymore, turns back to look out over the city. There's a certain irritating tightness in his chest, like if he doesn't speak his mind he's going to implode.

"I know this whole _whatever_ this is is difficult for you to figure out, but I'm getting tired of ignoring–" Rhys cuts himself off because he doesn't even know what specifically they're ignoring anymore besides each other.

He spares a glance over at Jack, who is looking through the open doors to party inside. Rhys knows Jack probably doesn't want to hear any of this, and Rhys really hates to spoil the night, but they can't keep avoiding the real problem.

Jack lets out a tortured sigh and Rhys watches as he brings a hand up to run through his previously perfectly styled hair. Rhys can tell he wants to say something, anything probably, but he can't seem to get his thoughts together. Jack shakes his head like maybe that will help make his head clearer.

When Jack does finally speak, it's in a surprisingly calm, quiet tone Rhys isn't used to, only remembers hearing that morning after Jack brought him home from the bar. That morning Jack finally opened up to him.

"I'm sorry," Jack begins and it sounds like it actually pains him to confess aloud that's he's apologetic for something.

"I'm sorry, and I know I've been a complete dick; we've even had that conversation before. I just– I don't know. I have no idea what I'm doing and I-I'm fucked up and I don't know how to talk to people and everyone leaves me–" Jack rambles out like he can't stop now that he's started and Rhys feels like his heart physically breaks at that, cuts him off so Jack doesn't have to continue his train of thought.

"I'm not going anywhere, Jack..." Rhys's chest aches and he feels he's on the verge of tears, doesn't even know why he is. Rhys risks stepping closer into Jack's personal space and takes Jack's hands in his. "But if you _do_ want me to leave, just know I'm not very far if you ever need me."

"...God, you're somethin' else, y'know that kid?" And then Jack's lips are on his and it takes Rhys a moment to actually process that Jack is in fact kissing him. There's a hand in Rhys's hair, another at the small of his back pulling him closer, and Jack rests his forehead against Rhys's when he finally pulls away from the kiss.

"I want you," Jack murmurs, "I want to try this with you."

Rhys is pretty sure he _is_ crying now, and he tries to quietly laugh it off in disbelief and embarrassment; he can only think of how many times he's cried in front of his boss in the past few months. He shakes his head like that'll make the tears stop, and he kisses Jack again to refocus his mind.

Rhys doesn't think he's ever felt more at ease yet so impatient and eager than he does right now. Jack's hand is still in his hair, the other at his hip now, and Rhys's arms have migrated to loop around Jack's neck. Their kisses soon turn fervent and hurried; Rhys's body feels like it's on fire and Jack's name is a mantra in his mind.

Rhys is breathing hard when Jack breaks the kiss again, and they've migrated so Jack could press Rhys against the sturdy balcony railing. Rhys chuckles softly, pressing a chaste kiss against Jack's lips. Jack is about to return the favor when Rhys breathes out, "Take me home."

Jack seems very keen at the idea, gives Rhys a salacious grin that only barely reveals the intent behind it. Rhys's whole body burns with want and they can't leave leave this building quick enough.

Rhys forgets about Vaughn and Yvette and the party, and he lets Jack usher him into a taxi. Jack can't seem to keep his hands to himself, but neither can Rhys, really. Jack's lips are pressing kisses against the length of his neck when Rhys realizes Jack had given the driver Jack's home address. Rhys doesn't get the chance to mull that over before Jack is biting at his neck, sucking at the skin there that's sure to be one hell of a hickey later.

They're a tangle of limbs getting out of the car, but Jack manages to pay the driver accordingly and leads the two of them through the front door. 

Jack is already trying to get rid of Rhys's jacket; he's pretty sure he hears something rip when Jack finally pulls it off and leaves it in a heap on the floor. Rhys's mind is comfortably numb but he does have enough sense about him to not let Jack corner him against the door; if he does, Rhys knows Jack will have him right there, and it's surely not as comfortable as Jack's bed upstairs. Rhys reluctantly steers the both of them towards the staircase and on up to Jack's bedroom.

When they reach Jack's room, the older man wastes no time in beginning to strip Rhys of the rest of his clothes. He pauses when he pulls Rhys's tie from its place, running his fingers over the silky material; there's a certain look in his eye that Rhys can't quite decipher, but he feels as if he mirrors the same expression. Rhys takes the tie from Jack's hands and presses a soft, promising kiss against the older man's lips.

"I'll let you use this on me once we're undressed," Rhys practically purrs, giving Jack a smirk. Jack, in turn, grins and raises an eyebrow at Rhys's statement.

"You gonna get all Fifty Shades on me, Rhysie?"

Rhys rolls his eyes and tosses the tie to the side on the bed, and moves to rest his hands on Jack's broad shoulders. "Only if you ask nicely, Mr. Lawrence."

Jack laughs at that, brings Rhys closer to kiss him once again, and resumes his task from before of undressing Rhys as quickly as he can manage. Rhys returns the favor, pressing soft kisses against Jack's skin once it's revealed, and once they're fully undressed, Jack guides him to his bed.

It may be the most inopportune timing, but Rhys's head is a fog of love and affection and it all feels so very different from the previous times they've been in bed together. It's Jack reciprocating finally what Rhys has been giving him in waves all along. Rhys knows he's crying before the tears even start, and it's such bad timing, but he can't help the swell of emotion that overcomes him.

He barely registers Jack's hands on his face, in his hair, as he kisses Rhys's cheeks, kisses the tears away. Rhys smiles, shaking his head in amusement over how many times he has openly cried in Jack's presence. Jack's hands are petting at him and he's kissing Rhys and murmuring "it's okay, I got you" over and over until Rhys is finally calm enough to kiss him back.

Then Jack's hands are massaging at his hips and Rhys's arms find their way around the older man's shoulders. Jack gives Rhys a playful smirk at that and, without a word, reaches for the tie Rhys had thrown aside not too long ago. Jack looks at Rhys, his expression asking a silent question, and Rhys nods vigorously.

Jack's mouth is on his again, slick and hot, and Jack's hands run a soft trail up Rhys's body in search of Rhys's own hands. Jack lets Rhys clasp their fingers together for a moment before pulling Rhys's arms above his head on the bed and gets to work tying up Rhys's hands.

Jack makes sure Rhys's wrists are bound with the tie tight enough so that he can't get out of his restraints, but loose enough that it doesn't hurt Rhys. Rhys tests this, and sure enough his body heats up ridiculously at the realization that he's at Jack's mercy in this respect; if he wants to use his hands, he'll have to beg Jack to let him. It turns him on more than it probably should, but that's not his main concern right now.

Jack is mouthing and sucking at the expanse of Rhys's neck and Rhys tilts his head to give him more access; Rhys knows he's going to be covered in hickeys by the end of this. There's a thumb rubbing soothing circles into the jut of his hipbone and then that thumb suddenly skids down the length of Rhys's cock and Rhys's whole body jerks at the sensation.

His hands are already twisting within their confines, eager to splay his fingers into Jack's hair, to clench his fingers into the sheets when Jack loosely takes his cock in hand and strokes slowly. Rhys can't help the gasp he lets out at the movement, nor the buck of his hips against Jack's hand, and Jack quietly chuckles at him. Rhys wants to tell Jack to hurry up, to do more _something_ ; Rhys isn't exactly sure what he wants, he just knows he wants as much of Jack as he can get.

Jack's mouth roves over his skin, leaving kisses and bites every so often. He makes a trail down Rhys's body and nips at his hip, and Rhys knows what he's doing. He lets out an involuntary whine when Jack skips over his cock to press his lips against Rhys's thigh instead, and Rhys's hands struggle in their restraints.

"Jack, please." It's more of a plea than a request, but Jack seemingly decides to indulge him.

The feeling of Jack's mouth on him is definitely on up there on the list of the best things Rhys has ever experienced. Rhys certainly can't help the ridiculously embarrassing noises he makes when Jack does this thing with his tongue that Rhys can't even begin to describe. And then the feeling is gone all too quickly and Jack pulls away.

Rhys wants to whine, to get his hands in Jack's hair and direct him where he wants him the most, but his hands are a little indisposed at the moment and Jack is moving up to kiss him—if it can be called that; it's more open-mouthed tonguing, really. Either way, Rhys definitely appreciates the low groan he elicits from Jack when he bites at Jack's bottom lip.

Jack moves away from him then, going for the nightstand to dig around in it. He retrieves what he needed, and then makes a sound in triumph when he settles back between Rhys's legs. Rhys rolls his eyes at the grin Jack gives him, and Jack shifts to kiss him once more.

"You're pretty perfect, y'know that, kiddo?" Jack says, moving down to trail kisses down Rhys's neck.

Rhys scoffs in amusement at the remark, says, "Only 'pretty' perfect, huh?" Jack makes a face at him and Rhys breaks out in a fit of giggles.

"Alright, alright," Jack says, "You know that's not what I meant."

Rhys nods his head. His laughter slowly dies down and Jack kisses him for what feels like the umpteenth time (not that Rhys is complaining, though.) Rhys feels as relaxed as humanly possible, but then Jack is moving down his body and nipping at his hipbones, and it makes Rhys unconsciously jerk up against Jack's mouth. It kind of reminds him of the task at hand.

Rhys is relaxed even though his body feels like it's been lit on fire, his body heated in heady arousal. He's pretty sure he blushes impossibly more when Jack uncaps the lube bottle, then Rhys lifts his hips accordingly when Jack pushes a pillow up under them. He watches helplessly as Jack slicks up his fingers and gently spreads Rhys's legs a little more.

There's slick, prodding fingers at his entrance and then one is suddenly pushing inside him and Rhys can't help the gasp he lets out at the feeling. Jack makes a subtle noise in appreciation as his mouth roves over Rhys's hickey-mottled hipbone, and gives Rhys a moment to adjust. Jack slowly eases another digit in when Rhys starts wriggling his hips, and Rhys almost regrets letting Jack tie his hands up because he's rather have them grasping Jack's hair instead.

The third finger is almost too much when Jack finally nudges it in with the others, and Rhys let's go of the breath he hadn't realized he'd even been holding. This is probably the slowest they've ever taken things, and Rhys isn't sure if it's because this time is meaningful or if it's all just in Rhys's imagination. Either way, he's grateful for the slow pace.

Rhys eventually makes an experimental thrust against Jack's fingers when he feels ready, and Jack moves them back just the same. Rhys is acutely aware of the sounds he's making as Jack's fingers settle on a steady rhythm, but he can't bring himself to care. Jack's fingers finally brush against that one spot and Rhys whines, his hands writhing against the tie.

Jack moves up to kiss him and Rhys shifts to meet him halfway. He needs more than Jack's fingers, tries to convey this before those fingers shift inside him just right and Rhys gasps against Jack's lips. Jack continues to stretch him, continues to wring noises out of Rhys's mouth like they won't stop, then finally deems him ready when it seems like Rhys has had enough of that.

Jack shifts away from Rhys to put a condom on, Rhys's eyes glued to him as he slicks himself up. Jack settles back between Rhys's splayed legs and Rhys mentally prepares himself as Jack _finally_ pushes into him. He goes slow, only moving in slow increments until Rhys eventually thrusts his hips against Jack's, pulling a low groan from the back of Jack's throat.

When he's fully inside Rhys, Jack waits a moment for Rhys to get completely accustomed to the feeling, but Rhys is desperate at this point. He moves his hips back against Jack's before he can think about it, gasps when Jack sinks his teeth in Rhys's shoulder. Then Jack finally moved of his own accord, pulling out and thrusting back in at a firm pace. If Rhys cared enough, he'd be reasonably embarrassed at the noises being drawn out of him, but he's sure Jack knows by now each and every sound that can be coerced from his mouth.

Jack's hands are everywhere, skimming over his skin, gripping at his hips to get leverage. Rhys wishes his hands weren't tied up only so he could return the favor, to grip at Jack's shoulder, drag his fingernails down Jack's spine in the way Rhys knows he likes. He can only struggle with the tie (like he actually wants to be freed) and it makes him feel exposed and vulnerable in a way that's more than just what's above the surface.

Jack flips them suddenly and Rhys lets out a cry that's something between a whimper and a moan at the change of position. He rests his hands on Jack's chest as best as he can with his hands like they are, and Jack seems content to leave them just like that.

Rhys is about to tell Jack to get on with it when he feels Jack's hands grip at his waist and lifts Rhys up his cock like he weighs nothing as he pulls his hips back. Rhys gasps out Jack's name when the older man thrusts back into him, this change of position doing absolute wonders for Rhys, and Jack grins up at him.

Rhys honestly could've came just from this if Jack would let him, but then Jack's hand is on Rhys's cock and it reminds him of just how hard he was, how badly he needs to come. And he can tell Jack is holding back, trying to stave off his own orgasm to get Rhys off first instead, which just fuels Rhys's compulsion to make Jack come first.

"Untie me," Rhys whines, "please." And Jack doesn't even hesitate, too far gone to even tease Rhys like Rhys knows he wants to. 

The tie is undone in moments and with his hands untied, Rhys smooths them over Jack's chest. Jack continues to drive his hips up into him, and Rhys glides his hands up to cup Jack's jaw as Rhys leans down to kiss him. A well-aimed thrust against his prostate has Rhys breaking their kiss, moaning out Jack's name against the man's lips. Jack lets out a corresponding groan when Rhys attaches his lips to Jack's neck.

Rhys whines Jack's name like a mantra against the skin of the older man's neck, and he swears loudly when he feels Jack grip on his hips tighten as his own hips suddenly stutter up against him. Jack's orgasm spurs Rhys on, and he rests his hands on Jack's chest as his sits himself upright and rides Jack's cock like his life depends on it.

Rhys moans out a string of expletives as he comes, fingernails digging into the skin of Jack's chest. It has to be painful, but Jack doesn't stop him, only leans up to kiss Rhys as he continues to jerk him off.

He feels weightless for a moment, his eyes shut tight at the intensity of his orgasm. Jack's hands petting at him and Jack's lips pressing kisses against his shoulder brings Rhys back to the present, and he sighs as he relaxes against the older man. He ignores the sticky mess between them, kisses Jack instead and pushes him back to lie in the mess of sheets and Jack's ridiculously fluffy comforter.

Rhys doesn't even try to put effort into their kiss, too sated and tired to really think about it. He pulls away eventually to rest his head against Jack's shoulder, getting comfortable against his side.

"There's come all over you," Rhys says suddenly without thought.

Jack laughs at the statement, says, "Yeah? And whose fault is that?" Rhys doesn't supply him with an actual response, only makes grumbling noises against the man's shoulder.

They're comfortably quiet for a moment and Rhys feels incredibly tired now. He wonders if Jack is still awake when Rhys murmurs, "I love you."

Jack doesn't respond but Rhys can tell he is evidently awake if the way the older man's heartbeat speeds up just that tiny bit is any sign. But Rhys doesn't have any worries about what he said, knows that it might take Jack a while to respond in kind.

"You don't have to say it back, I know that kind of thing is hard for you," Rhys finally says after Jack doesn't seem like he's going to respond at all. Rhys knows Jack cares about him, knows that in time Jack will be able to tell Rhys he loves him. For now, Rhys accepts Jack's soft sigh as enough and moves to kiss him once more before either of them fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fuckin bless it that took for damn ever sorry for the wait guys. i barely proofread this so _please_ yell at me for any discrepancies and grammar mistakes
> 
> anyways, shoutout to my fren [AgentCalifornia](http://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentCalifornia) who helped me decide wtf rhys was gonna wear to the party and gave me the rose idea that i instantly fell in love with :3
> 
> i'm sorry their fight/angsty talk kinda sucked. it just wasn't going the way i wanted and it didn't want to be rewritten /:
> 
> in other news, i did decide that i'm gonna do the epilogue bc why tf not lmao. it's really only an epilogue in the immediate story-continuation sense, like it's going to be sort of like "the next day" and then kind of goes into "weeks later" maybe?? idk for sure yet


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bless here we are guys, the very last chapter i hope you guys like it ;o;
> 
> i am seriously so sorry it took me this long to get it out. i started out strong but then it took me foreeever to write the ending (which i apologize for if it sucks tremendously. it didn't want to be written how i wanted)
> 
> i barely proofread this so feel free to yell at me about any mistakes! and please please _please_ let me know if you see any weird html mistakes. i edited it all on my phone and i could have missed/messed up something

Rhys wakes up to a warm bed and Jack snoring obnoxiously loud beside him; he figures that solves the question of what woke him up. There's a lack of sticky substances on him and Rhys is eternally grateful, figures Jack had cleaned them up before crashing himself.

Rhys gently turns in the bed to face the man in question, careful not to wake him up. Jack manages to look tired even when he's asleep. He looks peaceful though, Rhys notes with a smile.

Rhys's thoughts are interrupted when he hears his phone go off. It's thankfully not loud (not that Rhys thinks Jack would be able to hear it over his damned snoring, anyway.) The device dings once more and Rhys finds it on the bedside table, displaying two new messages from Vaughn.

_"where did u go last nite???"_  
_"u went 2 jacks didnt u?"_

Rhys lets out a soft laugh at that, unlocking his phone to type out a reply. And then there's a hand snatching the phone away and warm lips pressing kisses against his naked shoulder.

"Who're you even texting this early, cupcake?" Jack's voice is thick and raspy with sleep and Rhys can't help the shiver that runs down his spine.

"I don't think it's actually that early, Jack," Rhys murmurs with a smile. Jack envelops Rhys in his arms, and Rhys turns around to kiss him. Jack makes a sound in disagreement at Rhys's statement, but deepens their kiss and moves to cage Rhys in underneath him.

Jack definitely makes it clear that he doesn't think it's too early for sex.

  


When Rhys wakes up again, it's to an empty bed. It takes him a disorienting moment to actually wake himself up and remember where he was, to ponder where Jack had gone. He's almost content enough to ignore Jack's absence, to stay wrapped up in the soft sheets and feather down comforter; Jack's bed is perfect, and Rhys feels like everything else is perfect when he's in Jack's bed. _But_ , the bed is cold and Rhys can't fall back asleep while he's cold.

He breathes in deep, stretches, then makes his way out of bed. His and Jack's clothes from the night before are still scattered about, and Rhys rolls his eyes at the fact that Jack didn't even bother to pick them up off of the floor. He grabs Jack's now-wrinkled shirt off the floor, buttoning it up once he finally finds his own underwear in the spattering of clothing.

There's a lingering scent of coffee, barely there as Rhys makes his way out of the bedroom and into the hallway. Rhys just wants to know how ridiculously strong Jack must make his coffee to make the whole house smell like it.

Rhys doesn't know what door leads to what, he's never been anywhere upstairs other than Jack's bedroom. His first few attempts lead him to a spare bedroom and a bathroom. The last door in the hallway is cracked, and Rhys can hear the ticks of computer keys when he gets closer.

Rhys finds Jack typing away at his computer when he nudges the door open, the room revealing itself to be Jack's office. Jack takes turns intermittently drinking from his coffee mug and pushing up the wire frames of the glasses perched on his nose with his forefinger. Rhys elects to watch him work from the doorway, isn't too bothered to disrupt the man's apt concentration.

It's terribly cliche, but Jack grins when he eventually looks up from his computer and sees Rhys in the doorway, gets up from his desk and crosses the room to kiss him. Rhys can't help but smile into the kiss, and when Jack deepens the kiss, he tastes like his sugary coffee.

"Good morning to you too," Rhys says in amusement when they finally pull away from each other.

"I think it's closer to afternoon, honestly." Jack smooths a hand through Rhys's mussed hair, tough with the gel he'd styled it with the night before. Rhys arches up into the pettings like a cat and closes his eyes in content.

"Why're you working on your day off?" It's more of a trick question, really, because when is Jack ever not working? 

"I got a promotion too, y'know. You're lookin' at the new CFO, Rhysie cup." He says is so casually, but Rhys can tell Jack's proud of himself, excited that his hard work has paid off.

"That's huge, Jack!" Rhys grins, pointedly ignoring the knowing smirk Jack gives him (Rhys swears Jack can make innuendo out of anything.) "We should celebrate or something."

Jack shrugs, but he's still smiling. Instead of answering, he leans in to kiss Rhys again. Jack's wandering hands are at Rhys's waist, rucking the button-down shirt up to reveal Rhys's soft thighs. His fingers are starting to inch their way down them when the doorbell rings. Jack groans into the kiss in irritation, and it seems to take all of his willpower to pull away from Rhys.

Rhys chuckles at the other man's exasperation, lets Jack go so he can check who is at the door. In the meantime, Rhys head back into the bedroom to make himself more presentable. He can't wander downstairs in his underwear, obviously (though, Rhys is sure Jack wouldn't oppose to that.)

When Rhys finally makes his way downstairs, Jack is talking to whoever is at the door, inviting them in. And then it gets really weird because the person looks identical to Jack. It's obviously his brother, a relative, _whoever_ , but it's still jarring enough that Rhys pauses where he is on the staircase.

Jack turns to acknowledge Rhys, makes a beckoning motion with his hand. "Heyyy, Rhysie! Come meet Tim."

Rhys tries his best to smile, to be polite as he makes his way down the rest of the staircase. Jack gestures between Rhys and the other man as he introduces them. "Rhys, this is my brother Tim. Tim, this is my– Rhys. This is Rhys."

Tim grins, but it's not in the same way Jack would. Jack's grins are cocky and sharp. Tim's is more of a meek and charming nature. " _Your_ Rhys, huh? Duly noted."

The "my Rhys" slip-up hadn't gone unnoticed by the man in question either, but Rhys shrugged it off. He and Jack haven't had the chance to talk more about the specifics of what they're actually doing.

Jack makes an unamused face at his brother, mutters a "yeah, yeah" as Tim moves to shake Rhys's hand.

Tim tells Jack that he'd only come by because he was in town and he wanted to congratulate Jack on his promotion. Jack badgers his brother into staying for brunch, and Tim reluctantly agrees.

Rhys felt like Jack was the kind of man to barely be able to make himself some cereal, but Jack proves himself to be a way better cook than Rhys would've thought. Rhys doesn't mention this but Jack can read him so well, and tells Rhys that he was always cooking back when he and his brother were kids. (Tim had laughed, said, "It was his other hobby, besides guns.")

That springs Tim into telling Rhys as much about their childhood as he can. They were born in Canada, but grew up in the US. They moved around a lot, mostly staying in the south (now that Rhys thinks about it, Jack does have a slight accent. It's less prominent than Tim's, though; maybe he tries really hard to mask it.) Tim tells Rhys he was the nerdy one, but says Jack honestly wasn't any better. Jack stops him right there before he can go on into any embarrassing stories.

Tim doesn't stay too long after. He thanks Jack for brunch, tells Rhys it was lovely to meet him, and heads out on his way. After making sure Tim was gone, Jack resumes what he'd been doing earlier before he'd been interrupted. Meaning, Jack drags him onto the sofa in the living room and makes him forget his own name.

  


It might be meeting Jack's brother that triggers it, but Rhys encourages Jack to see Angel more. Seeing Jack with his family made Rhys get this warm feeling in his chest that he wouldn't really admit to. So, Jack tries his absolute hardest to get Angel to see him.

Then Jack encourages Rhys to meet Angel. Which is awkward at first, definitely more awkward than meeting Tim. She doesn't seem to like Rhys initially, but Rhys chalks that up to irritable teenage mentality (she certainly seems to have inherited her father's stubbornness) rather than something he'd personally done.

Jack's daughter is definitely something—fiercely independent, brilliant. Rhys can see where she gets it from.

It took a few tries and countless 'I don't think she likes me Jack's for Angel to finally warm up to Rhys. When she finally does, Rhys can tell it means the world to Jack, and Jack's happiness means everything to Rhys.

  


Rhys starts sleeping over at Jack's more. He's not sure what brought it on, whether it was simply them testing the waters of this new thing between them or what.

Rhys likes staying at Jack's house. He'd started out staying only a night or two a week. His list of belongings he accidentally left at Jack's steadily began to grow in number, and eventually Jack insisted Rhys just bring over some of his extra things to keep at Jack's for when he does sleep there. Rhys grins and teases Jack about it when he clears out a drawer for Rhys ("It's so cliche, I can't help it!" Rhys had giggled when Jack had gotten all grumbly on him.)

A night or two a week turned into a few nights a week. Rhys has taken over three whole drawers in Jack's dresser. Jack jokes that he's going to have to buy a whole new one if Rhys continued on this path.

Weeks later, Rhys finds that he rarely sleeps at his own apartment anymore. He worries that maybe he's encroaching on Jack's personal space, staying over so often. He doesn't want to bring it up, vaguely hints at it to Jack who gives him deflective replies when he does. Rhys really starts to worry then and he cuts back on how many nights he sleeps at Jack's house.

And then Jack suggests they go out for dinner after work one Friday night. It may be the start of the weekend, but they both have paperwork piled high. Rhys doesn't like the idea of bringing work home, but he will most likely need to (and Jack probably will too.) Jack brushes it off then, insists that they go out just for 'ooone night, please Rhysie?' And Rhys can't say no to that.

Rhys remains busy working throughout the day, and he wasn't even aware that it was time to clock out when Jack struts into his office.

"Time's a'wasting, cupcake. Let's get going," is the first thing Jack says when he walks in. Rhys isn't sure why he's so eager; date nights are cool and all, but Jack doesn't seem the kind of guy that would get excited for all the romantics. Either way, Jack is impatient and Rhys quickly finishes up what he was doing so they can leave together.

The restaurant Jack brings him to is a little fancy, and Rhys realizes this is the first legitimate date they've been on. Sure, he had had dinner at Jack's house one time, but that was back when they were avoiding each other. Any other time, they were too busy sleeping together to go out together properly (Jack probably would've screamed if Rhys had asked him out on a date back then.)

Rhys isn't surprised he's a little anxious about the whole thing, and the real nerves begin to set in as the hostess takes them to their (reserved—Jack seriously made reservations) table. What if Rhys completely messes up this date? Oh god, what if Jack decided they shouldn't date– it's a really dumb thought, but Rhys can't help but think that it's at least possible.

Rhys hopes Jack doesn't pick up on his nervousness, but he does because Rhys is as obvious as they come.

"What's up, kitten?" The nickname makes Rhys blush just that little bit, despite his jitters. The look Jack gives him conveys his concern, and worrying is the last thing Rhys wants him to do. He shakes off his own nerves and smiles at Jack, reaching across the table to take Jack's hand in his.

"I'm fine," Rhys says and he can't help but wonder if this whole date will be as cliche as it has been in just the past few moments. Jack doesn't seem completely reassured, but he grins back at Rhys nonetheless, taking Rhys's hand.

  


Dinner goes as normal as it can. Jack orders for the both of them because Rhys honestly can't make sense of the menu. He's not sure how he ended up with steak, but Rhys isn't one to complain.

Conversation is normal, which is probably saying something for the two of them. It's not as awkward as Rhys thought it would be (he's the only one making it awkward) and Jack is noticeably eager about something. Rhys can't quite pinpoint what it is, but in the middle of their conversation, he says–

"And, y'know, once you move in it'll be way easier. Plus–"

"Wait, what?"

Jack at least looks incredibly confused before a moment before looking very done with himself. He practically face-palms and says, "I cannot believe I messed up this entire date, wow go me–"

"Jack, you didn't–" 

"No, seriously like. This is what this date was for, I–" Jack lets out a huff in frustration, moving to fiddle around in his pocket for something. He hands Rhys a little velvet box.

Needless to say, Rhys panics.

"Whaaaat is that? Jack, I–"

"It's not what you think it is, promise. Just...open it." Jack isn't exactly reassuring and Rhys gives him a questioning look before he opens the box. Jack makes an assortment of hand gestures at him to get him to hurry.

There's a little gold key inside, a pretty cursive R engraved in it. Rhys is unfortunately still confused, just looks up at Jack for further explanation.

"I– it's a key to my house. You can, y'know, come and go as you please or–" a flash of nervousness crosses Jack's expression; he keeps looking anywhere but Rhys, "Or, you could just move in with me. I _want_ you to move in with me– if you want to, that is. I–"

Rhys stops him before he can ramble himself to death, puts the box down so he can take Jack's hands in his instead.

"Thank you," Rhys can't help but smile at the genuity of the gesture, and he watches as Jack visibly becomes less tense. Rhys giggles (actually giggles), saying, "I would love to move in with you, Jack."

Rhys doesn't think of how soon it seems, or of all the things that could go wrong (knowing the two of them, there's probably more than several things that could go wrong.) He just thinks about how elated Jack looks, how excited he is himself. His dreams of actually being by Jack's side every day is finally coming true and Rhys can't think of anything he wants more. It proves to Rhys that Jack does love him, that he wants to actually live with Rhys.

They leave dinner early. Jack brings Rhys back to his house, muttering that they can start getting Rhys's stuff another day. Then he kisses Rhys, all tongue and teeth and want. Rhys all but melts, following Jack upstairs to his bedroom where Jack strips him down, worships his body with fluttering kisses and bites, before pushing him back on the bed.

Jack takes things slow; Rhys didn't think that was in his vocabulary when it concerned sex. Jack takes his time working him up, and when Rhys comes, he thinks it's probably the best orgasm he's had in his entire life. Rhys wouldn't admit to anyone that he probably cried at some point.

  


When Rhys wakes up, it's morning and Jack's entire body is wrapped around his. It's hot, especially under the thick comforter, but Rhys doesn't mind. Jack is softly snoring, as per usual, and he's close enough to Rhys that Rhys can lean in and kiss him. It doesn't wake him, not does Rhys disentangling himself from the older man's grip.

Rhys slowly gets out of bed, careful not to wake Jack, and pads over to the dresser for some pajama pants. It's weird being able to find his own belongings in Jack's house, but he guesses it'll be even weirder when he has _all_ of his things here instead of his apartment. Rhys idly wonders when he should tell Vaughn about all this; his friend has been continuously worried about the two of them being together finally.

Rhys shakes his head to clear his thoughts and heads into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He hadn't been aware Jack had followed him in until he feels the man's arms encircle his waist.

Rhys turns in his arms, leaning back against the bathroom counter. "Morning, handsome."

Jack gives him a sleepy smile at that, nuzzling into Rhys's neck and muttering a simple, "mornin'". Rhys laughs at the gesture; Jack is always clingy when he wakes up.

They stay like that for a moment, until the counter digging into Rhys's back is too much and he nudges Jack off him so he can move. Jack reluctantly goes, still hanging on to Rhys by taking the younger man's hand in his as Rhys walks them back into the bedroom.

"We should probably go by my apartment to start getting small stuff," Rhys says, Jack veering off from his side to flop back on the bed.

"Or," Jack sighs, stretching out the word, "we could stay here in bed all day."

Rhys lets out a soft snort in laughter and walks closer to the bed. He can't say he didn't expect it when Jack tugs his arm and Rhys falls onto the bed on top of Jack. He devolves into a fit of giggles and even Jack joins in after a moment.

"Honestly," Rhys laughs one last time, leaning in to press a gentle kiss against Jack's lips. Rhys smirks when he pulls away, much to Jack's chagrin, and the older man pouts when Rhys climbs off the bed.

Jack follows Rhys out of the room and on to the kitchen where he makes the both of them breakfast. (Jack makes his opinion known the whole time that he could probably make that better than Rhys could, no offense babycakes.)

  


Work is definitely different. Jack's promotion caused a shift in positions and that caused even more promotions, and the workload seems to have doubled. (Not to mention that Rhys and Jack have been busy trying to move all of Rhys's belongings into Jack's house in their spare time.) Jack teases Rhys that he'll just make Rhys his assistant and Rhys won't have to worry about work; Rhys knows he's truly only half-joking.

Rhys never gets a chance to tell Vaughn that he has since moved in with Jack. They both seem to be busy when the other has a free moment. It doesn't seem to bother Vaughn as much as it does Rhys; Vaughn at least knows that Rhys and Jack are finally on good terms.

It's a week and a half in and Rhys thinks he'll never be able to tell Vaughn about him moving in with Jack. Then Vaughn emails him around lunch time one day and Rhys all but runs to meet him in the break room.

The first thing out of Rhys's mouth once he sees Vaughn is, "I moved in with Jack." He doesn't take into consideration if anyone else was in the break room, Rhys was just elated to finally be able to tell Vaughn the fact in person.

"We really need to work on your greetings," Vaughn replies, sifting through his Chinese takeout he'd gotten for lunch. Rhys flashes him an apologetic grin.

"Sorry, I was just excited and I've been waiting for forever to tell you, man."

"I can tell," Vaughn returns his smile, gestures to the open seat in front of them and slides an extra carton of rice to Rhys once he sits down at the table. "That's really awesome though, dude. I'm happy for you."

The two of them catch up a little over lunch and talk excitedly about upcoming video games they just _have_ to play together. Before going back to work, they make plans on trying to get everyone together for the Fourth of July weekend.

  


Rhys manages to talk Jack into meeting up with his friends for the Fourth of July. It took some bribery that Rhys isn't exactly proud of, but he wants Jack to meet his friends and family and he's willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

Jack is kind enough to offer to host the party. He probably wouldn't admit it, but Rhys can tell he loves having get-togethers (plus Jack's house is probably the biggest out of Rhys's friends.) Rhys thanks Jack about a million and one times and group texts everyone to let them know the plan.

The rest of the week comes and goes, and Hyperion lets its workers leave early the day before the fourth. Rhys sends his friends Jack's address. Jack had been prepping all day, sending Rhys off to decorate the backyard deck while Jack spent his time cooking (he wouldn't let Rhys near the stove anymore after discovering how terrible of a cook he was; Rhys thinks it's for the best.)

Yvette is surprisingly the first one there, but she'd never turn down an opportunity for free food so Rhys knew she'd show up on time. The rest of the gang steadily make their way to Jack's house over the next half hour, and soon everyone is lounging around on Jack's deck. (Rhys notices that Vaughn and Fiona sit closer together than usual; Rhys wonders if there's something they're not telling him.)

Everyone seems more relaxed around Jack than Rhys had imagined they'd be, what with Jack being the boss of the majority of the group. Tim makes a surprise appearance that even Jack seems to be shocked by, but Jack eventually introduces him to everyone of Rhys's friends and Tim joins right in with the party.

Rhys excuses himself from the group when they run out of drinks, and he heads back into the house to retrieve more. Jack follows him in, rests his body against Rhys's back as Rhys makes everyone's drinks.

"Your friends aren't as nerdy as I thought they'd be," Jack mumbles from where he's buried his face in Rhys's shoulder. Rhys can tell he's grinning.

"Well, I'm sure they'll be relieved to hear that," Rhys says, chuckling and turning around to face Jack when he's done with the drinks. Jack rests his hands on Rhys's hips, and Rhys leans back against the kitchen counter.

They remain silent for several moments; it feels like forever to Rhys. He can hear everyone's roaring laughter outside, can hear Tim telling them some story that no doubt is embarrassing for Jack. Jack pays the noise no mind, moving to rest his forehead against Rhys's and closes his eyes.

Rhys opens his mouth to say something when it seems like Jack isn't going to speak, but Jack beats him to it, breathing out a content sigh.

"I love you."

It honestly takes Rhys by surprise; he's said it so casually, like it's something Rhys hasn't been waiting forever to hear. It surprises Rhys enough that he almost asks Jack to repeat himself, then the man does it anyway without Rhys having to tell him to.

"I love you, and I'm sorry it's taken this long for me to say it."

Rhys feels like the grin that splits across his face can't get any bigger. The proclamation makes Rhys's chest tight with emotion, makes his body resonate with warmth and love and something that only Jack can make him feel. Rhys has to force himself not to cry from all the feelings that surface.

"Alright, alright, c'mere ya dork," Jack says, rolling his eyes in affection and bringing Rhys's body closer to his own. Then Jack kisses him and Rhys internally damns his body for allowing himself to cry.

They're caught up in the moment; Rhys completely forgets his prior task of serving everyone new drinks. That is, until Yvette decides to remind him, sticking her head inside and yelling, "Yo, we're kinda thirsty out here, Rhys!"

Rhys breaks away from his kiss with Jack, laughter bubbling up in his chest. Yvette sure knew how to ruin a moment. He watches Yvette duck back outside to join the rest of the party and he turns to face Jack again.

"I love you, Jack." Rhys grins at the man, leaning in to press one last kiss against Jack's lips before gathering everyone's drinks on a tray to bring outside.

Rhys had never imagined that this is where his so-long-ago office tryst with his boss would leave him, but Rhys is definitely content with the outcome. He may have made some mistakes along the way, broken a heart or two, but in the end it all worked out. He has the man of his dreams sitting beside him on a lounge chair, his friends all gathered in one place to celebrate together.

Rhys doesn't think he could be any happier than he was in this moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'aaaaaaaall it's officially over lmao like wow this has been a journey. i know i'm not the best writer, but you guys stuck with me. thank you all _so much_ for reading and commenting and giving kudos, it means the world to me  <3
> 
> and a special thanks to my fren [AgentCalifornia](http://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentCalifornia) who always let me bounce ideas off of her and continuously encouraged me to finish this!
> 
>  i also have a few(?) oneshots planned, so i'll probably put them all in a series with this fic on here when i finish and post them. so yeah be on the lookout for that i guess
> 
> anyways hmu on [tumblr](http://sheets-theghost.tumblr.com) if u wanna do that


End file.
